If It All Went the Right Way
by smeetie13
Summary: This story is about Hope and Snow and the journey to the end of the world and back. Any suggestions or things you'd like to see in this story, just message me! DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS OR ANYTHING CREATED BY SQUARE ENIX!
1. Chapter 1

Hope and Snow

Waking up on Snow's back was, after trying to kill him, something I never thought would happen. After the explosion, Snow had wrapped me in his arms and protected me from the impact. And now he was carrying me to our destination: my house. The man who I had blamed for my mother's death was the same man who I tried to kill and was the same man who has protected me.

All of a sudden hating him seemed stupid, he didn't deserve it. In fact, I should be thanking him for not letting me get hurt.

"Snow." I whimpered, it hurt a little to talk.

"Hope! You're awake!" Snow sounded like he was in pain.

"Yeah, but are you okay?"

"I'll be fine, I just want to make sure you're alright." He had a hard time talking to me, he was definitely hurt. I slid off his back and on my own two feet. I was a little shaky, but I could walk. I slid under Snow's arm and did my best to support him.

"Let me make sure you're alright now!" Snow looked at me and flashed me the famous half-smile. I smiled and felt somewhat, nervous? No it wasn't nervousness, but what was it?

…

Hope smiled at me and my knees started to wobble. Was I having feelings for him? No. I'm engaged to Serah, I'm getting married to a woman soon. I couldn't be having feelings for Hope, especially since he was 14 and me being 21 that wouldn't exactly be okay. I pushed the feeling aside and focused on the street.

Hobbling into Hope's home and into the bedroom, I laid down on the bed. Lightning had bandaged me up and had me rest. While I laid there in the bed alone, I couldn't keep the thought of Hope out of my head, I mean I loved Hope. Like I love my family though, nothing more nothing less. Right?

During the night while everyone was asleep, there was a knock at the door. I quietly answered the knock with permission. The door opened and it was Hope.

…

I couldn't sleep even though everyone else was fast asleep. I couldn't stop thinking about Snow. I didn't know what I was feeling. I mean, now that I didn't hate him, I didn't know what I was feeling for him now. Am I in love?

Maybe if I talked to him I could confirm how I was feeling about him. Since I knew the house I moved silently passed Lightning and Fang, passed Vanille and Sazh. Now, just to make it down the hall. I got to the door and tapped on the door with only a finger because anything louder would have Lightning out here. I heard Snow quietly say, "Yeah?" The sound of his voice made my heart flutter.

I entered the room and shut the door behind me. I didn't know how to start talking to him so I just acted like I was there for another reason, "I know it's late, but I'm gonna change your bandages so your cuts and burns don't get infected." I nodded my head and smiled a bit.

"Alright kid, you're gonna have to help me sit up though." Snow sighed. He sounded like he expected something else to come out of my mouth.

I walked over to his bed and held out my hand, he grabbed it and I began to pull gently. Snow winced as he began lifting himself up. I slid my other hand behind his back and added the slightest pressure to help him the rest of the way. Poor guy, he was out of breath when he finally got up.

"You alright Snow?" I asked with my hand still on his back and my other held in his.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good! Alright tough guy, I'm gonna take them off starting with the back." I was just talking to talk now.

…

Having Hopes hand on me sent a warm, healing feeling throughout my back. I let go of his hand so he could remove the bandages. His hands were so delicate and I could hardly feel the bandages peeling away from me. When he lifted the gauss away from the wound that would completely expose it, I shuddered.

Hope dropped down in front of me and looked me in the eye, "Snow?! Did I hurt you?" I looked into Hope's blue-green eyes and saw that he was concerned about me. His eyes were beautiful, two things I could easily get lost in.

I put my hand on his head and rustled his hair, "Don't worry Hope, that was the first time I actually felt that you were changing them." I smiled at the boy and he smiled back.

Hope nodded and resumed his spot in the removal. He was so gentle, unlike Lightning, when he re administered the bandages. His hands were cool and smooth and felt so good against me. Hope wrapped me up around my shoulder, across my chest and back. The entire time he kept asking me if I was alright.

"Thanks Hope!" I smiled, I motioned for him to sit down next to me and he obeyed. "Are you alright Hope?

"Yeah I'm fine, just a couple of cuts and bruises. Nothing bad." He looked at me with a sort of soft expression.

"No, I mean _alright_." I looked at him and he sank into himself.

…

Physically I was fine, but mentally and emotionally I wasn't sure, "I don't hate you Snow. Like I said before, I needed someone to blame to keep on fighting. But that's not it anymore."

"I understand. I would do the same thing. But Hope, you need to know that I'm sorry." Snow looked at me with those deep blue eyes and I knew he meant every word.

I didn't know what to say, so I began to cry, "I'm so sorry Snow! I'm sorry, I don't hate you." Snow put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me into him. He was so warm. Snow held me tight, but gently. I felt safe.

"I know, it's okay Hope." Snow spoke to me softly while I cried into his chest. This was the first time I cried in a while about anything so it was all coming out at once. He put his other hand on top of my head and fingered through my hair. Snow pulled me in closer to him, "I'm here for you Hope. I'll protect you, help you, anything."

I lifted my head to look at him, "Snow?" I sniffled.

"Yeah?" Snow's eyes were soft and the corners of his mouth were at an upward angle.

"Thanks." Snow brushed away a tear on my cheek, but never took his hand away. Without the gloves on his hands, I now knew what they felt like. Snow's hands were soft and warm. He just looked into my eyes and then I knew how I felt about him.

"Don't mention it!" Snow's hand still on my face firm, but gentle, he inched closer to me. I moved closer to him as well.

Our foreheads touched. Our noses brushed together. I could feel his breath, and his lips were only that far away from mine. A breath.

…

I held Hope close to me, nothing keeping us from the small final distance between our lips. Except one thing: Serah. I wasn't thinking of her until I began the small journey to meet his lips with mine when Hope whispered, "What about Serah?"

I didn't care, I just wanted Hope. "She's not important right now. You are." Then I knew it. I pushed my lips against Hope's. The feeling was electric, lighting up every part of me as if I had been asleep all my life until now. I never felt this way before, call it love or just the heat of the moment, but it was something I would never forget. Hope's lips were so soft and gentle against mine.

I felt Hope's reluctance so I lightened up a little. As I did this, Hope kissed me back. Hard, but with ease and reassurance that he wanted me to kiss him back. I ran my fingers through the silver hair that fell in our faces and Hope put a cool, tender hand on my face.

…

I had never kissed anyone before, and I had never thought it would be Snow. He kissed me gently, but was rough in the way that told me he meant what he was feeling. It was amazing! His strong arms held me close while our lips moved together in perfect rhythm. The stubble on his chin tickled mine and I smiled into our kiss.

It was this first kiss that made me completely forget about my blaming him and was replaced with love. I was now in love with Snow Villiers.

I placed my hand on Snow's face and he brushed my hair out of our faces. Snow's lips were soft, strong and wonderful. It wasn't much longer before we both needed to breathe. We broke our lips apart and nuzzled our noses.

We opened our eyes and looked at each other. I could see it in his eyes that there was something there for me inside him. "Snow?" I whispered.

"Yeah?" He whispered back.

"That was my first kiss." My cheeks got red.

…

When we broke our kiss off my world was spinning, I definitely at this point had feelings for Hope. Although he was so young, he never acted like it. I looked into his eyes and saw how he felt about me.

Hope told me I was his first kiss, "Really?" I laughed in surprise, "I never would've known, that was the best kiss I've ever had!"

Hope smiled and began to blush, "So I wasn't bad?"

Just to prove to him that I wasn't lying, I pressed my lips to his again. "Do you believe me now?" I smiled.

Hope giggled and hugged me around my neck, even though it hurt I didn't care. I was glad that he didn't hate me anymore. I hugged him and pulled him in as close as I could. I held him tight. Hope smelled like something, something good. I couldn't remember what it was, but the smell brought me home. Then I remembered it: home. Home was Bodhum. Hope smelled like the breeze that blew through the fruit trees. The sweet smell of fruit and the saltiness of the sea.

"Hope, I'm thinking it's time for us to go to bed." I loosened my arms from around him and he broke himself loose of me. "Help me lay back, will ya?"

Hope stood behind me with a hand across my shoulders and with his other held one of mine. He set me down as if I would've shattered. He released my hand and put both hands on my back and didn't remove them until I was completely on the mattress. "You okay? Are you cold? Do you need anything?"

He asked me all these questions and I was astounded at how much he cared, "Hope, Hope, I'm fine. Thank you for caring though, you really are the sweetest person I know." I smiled at him and he smiled back.

"Thanks Snow, it means a lot." He knelt beside me, "If you need anything, I'll be here for you. I'm just down the hall, okay?" I was supposed to be his hero, but it looks like through all of this, Hope was saving me.

"You bet. Now go get some sleep alright. Who knows the next time we're gonna get a good nights sleep again." I rustled his silver hair that seemed to almost glow in the dim lighting of the room.

Hope stood up and kissed me on the forehead, something that I was never used to, and walked over to the door. "Goodnight Snow."

I didn't want him to leave. I wanted to him to stay with me. "Please don't go Hope." He stopped. I wanted Hope to stay here in this room with me. I wanted to wrap my arms around him. I just wanted Hope, "Will you stay with me?"

Without a word Hope strode over to the bed, his silk boxers hanging low on his hips reflecting a little light with every step. His beater showed off his arms, which showed some muscle, and the neck swooped low enough to see some definition forming in his chest. The boy was beautiful, and to see the smile on his face when he crawled into the bed with me made it better.

Hope snuggled right up next to me and I wrapped an arm around him, "I feel safe with you Snow. Did I ever tell you that?" He was drawing circles on my chest and looking at me.

"You never had to." I squeezed him and ran my hand down his side. He giggled, "So you're ticklish?"

"Yes!" Hope laughed quietly.

"I'll have to remember that." I laughed and kissed him on the head, "Goodnight."

Hope shifted himself to make sure that he was as close to me as humanly possible, "Goodnight Snow."

XXX

In the days to follow, Hope and Snow's first kiss, the sparks began to fly. After big battles like Barthandelus, the two would run off together and celebrate with touches and kisses. Pretty soon the rest of the group was asking questions amongst themselves. Lightning only thought that they had grown to be the best of friends. Vanille, Fang and Sazh knew better. Although they did grow to become best friends, their feelings for each other grew immensely.

When the party reached Gran Pulse it was soon discovered that Snow was extremely protective of his young lover. Whenever Hope and Snow battled together, Hope's magic was stronger.

XXX

It was late and the fire was dying down. Vanille, Fang and I were still awake while the other three were fast asleep. Fang poked at the fire with her spear, "So? Hope? Vanille and I have been talking about you and your friend over there." The dark-haired woman nodded her head at Snow.

My face began to get hot, "What about us?"

"Well, it seems to us that you two make a cute couple!" Vanille giggled.

I turned my head away from them, but only to have my eye land on the man who captured my heart, "How do you guys know?" Were we that obvious?

Fang kept stabbing at the fire, "Come on, we're not stupid. If anything steps foot near you, Snow is right there to fight it off. At night, I can hear the two of you talk. It's nice, though, you guys make each other stronger in the best ways." Vanille got up and sat next to me.

"You guys won't tell Lightning will you?" That was my worst fear. If she found out about Snow and I, she'd more than likely kill him.

Vanille burst out, "Of course not!"

"That's not our place. But anyways kid, we should be going to bed. We've got a lot of traveling to do tomorrow." Fang stood up and walked around to find a suitable place to sleep and Vanille followed.

"Goodnight guys." I couldn't wait to lay next to Snow. I was always so excited to go to sleep because he would wrap his strong arms around me and pull me in tight. He kept me warm. And in the morning, if he woke up first he would cover me with his trench coat.

I laid down facing him. He looked so calm, happy. I wondered what he was dreaming about. I reached a hand out and touched his face. He had become a light sleeper lately so he woke up when I touched him. He smiled when he saw that it was me, "Hey! You comin' to bed now?" He spoke softly and it was magnificently sexy.

I moved closer to him so I could give him a kiss, "Yep!" I smiled, "Hey Snow?"

I turned around so he could pull me into him, "Yeah babe?" My face began to get hot once again when he said that.

"Fang and Vanille know about us."

Snow squeezed me tight, "I know, but I don't care." Snow kissed the top of my head like he did every night, "Goodnight Hope."

…

I woke in the morning to Hope still in my arms. I always smiled seeing him there. Hope constantly adjusted himself so he could fit his body into mine better. After each adjustment I would hold him tighter and he would sigh. I looked down to see the boy's face. He was sound asleep and peaceful. He was beautiful, I never found any other way to describe him since I couldn't find the right words. It made me happy knowing that I was the one Hope wanted to be close to, talk to, be with.

I watched him sleep for about ten minutes before the small body in my arms began to squirm. He groaned into my chest and I rubbed his back, "Good morning!" I spoke softly since I knew he hated noise when he first woke up.

"Just a little longer please?" I could never deny him anything.

"Of course, go back to sleep. I'm not going anywhere." I ran my fingers through his hair and kissed him.

I cradled him and watched him sleep once more. A couple of minutes later Hope began to whine. He started to cry out into my chest, "No, no!"

I shook him, "Hope babe, wake up!" I shook him again.

He woke up. He sat up and immediately started crying, "Snow!" My heart shattered seeing him cry. I sat up and hugged him. I rubbed his back, "Snow." He kept crying.

"I've got you, you're alright! It was just a dream. Just a bad dream." I rocked him and squeezed him. His sobs mellowed out to sniffles. He lifted himself from me and I wiped his tears. I kissed him and he relaxed, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I saw my mom." He sighed, "She told me that she had to go." The tears welled in his eyes and began to fall again, "She told me that she was sorry." Hope buried his face in my chest and sobbed.

I held him and just let him cry. I knew that all of this was too much. I was surprised this was the first time he had broken down since Cocoon. After he had calmed down enough to speak he looked up at me, "Thank you Snow!" He kissed me.

"No need to thank me." I hugged him tight.

…

We made it to Oerba in about four or five days and we were all excited about one thing: the beds. Snow and I had claimed an apartment on the other side of the small main square. All of us decided to stay until the next day before we continued on. In the meantime, we could bathe, eat and relax.

Snow and I went down to the spring to bathe. Snow took his jacket and shirt off and the sun reflected off of his golden skin. His torso was perfectly chiseled. His back was muscular and perfect. Snow was perfect. I just stared at him. He noticed, "Like what you see there big guy?" He laughed and walked over to me. He slipped his hands under my jacket and slid it off. When it hit the ground, Snow's lips had crashed into mine, "I'm all yours!" He whispered in my ear and my legs turned to jelly.

Snow continued to undress himself and I just watched. He removed his shoes and socks. He dropped his pants and underwear to the ground and he was fully exposed, for the first time, to me. I didn't get a good view of the front, but his ass was round and firm. I knew it was firm since I would grab it when we would make-out sometimes. He pulled the bandanna from his head and jumped into the water. When he came up, he called to me, "Come on Hope! The water's warm!" He had this grin on his face that made me excited.

…

I looked up to Hope, his silver hair shining in the sunlight, waiting to see him. All of him. There was something tempting and sexy about the boy. I think it was the most revealing he had ever been in front of me, was him without a shirt. "Turn around!" Hope called out to me and I could see the blush on his cheeks, so I listened to his command.

Shortly after that, there was a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and there he was. Fuck he was beautiful. His pale skin was lit up by the sun. The water was clear so I could see everything. I had never wanted to touch something or someone so much in my life. "Hope, you are so beautiful!" I had a shortness of breath.

He giggled and rested his head on my chest and I lifted him up. I held his legs in one arm and his torso in the other. I started nibble on his neck. His skin was soft and cool. Hope ran his fingers through my hair while I made a trail down to his chest. I nibbled and kissed his skin. Hope sighed. I went down farther to his stomach. Hope started laughing, I remembered that his stomach and sides were really ticklish. I kept kissing his stomach and sides. He laughed and kicked his feet. "Snow! I can't breathe!" Hope laughed and laughed, and it made me happy to hear. When I stopped and looked at him, he still had the biggest smile on his face, "Snow, it's not fair. You know where I'm ticklish, but I don't know where you are."

My feet and the backs of my knees. Those were the only places. "Well, babe. You're just going to have to find out yourself!"

We swam around together for a bit. Every once in a while Hope would wrap his arms around my waist and ask me to give him a kiss. I was pretty sure that there was nothing he could want that I wouldn't give to him. I was completely head-over-heals for him and he knew it. After we had gotten out of the water and dried off, I finally got to see Hope without the distortion of the water. He was pale and thin, but had muscle. His ass was great and I got excited when he bent over to pick up his clothes.

Whenever Hope would see me looking at him, he'd blush. "Hey Hope. How come you always get red when I look at you?"

He smiled, "I don't know. I mean back on Cocoon no one ever looked at me the way you do. All the girls wanted the older guys. When you look at me, I just get excited that you actually like me." He tried to hide his face by slipping his shirt on, but I met him when his head poked out with a kiss. I always loved the way he would sigh and relax when I kissed him.

I smiled at him, "Well baby, you better get used to it. I don't just like you, I love you." I finally said it. I had felt it for a long time, but never knew when to tell him. I didn't want to scare him off.

…

I couldn't believe what I just heard. Snow Villiers loves me. I was breathless, "You, uh, you do?"

"Yes I do, I love you Hope." Snow smiled and I just stood there dumbfounded. He took my hands and kissed me, "Hope, when I see you I'm happy. I've never felt this way about anyone. Not even Serah."

I was surprised, excited, happy. I was a mess of emotions, but good ones though, "Snow, I know I'm young and I haven't been around long enough to know what love feels like, but I love you too." When I told him this, Snow's expression looked scared, until I told him I loved him too.

"You do?!" Snow smiled as wide as he could and hugged me. He lifted me up off the ground and spun me around. I looked into his eyes and saw that the icy blue that had frozen him, melted. Snow's eyes looked more amazing than I had ever seen before. He kissed me, "Alright babe, let's get back to town."

We walked back up the ramp laughing and giggling. For the first time, in a long time, I knew everything was going to be alright. I had Lightning, Sazh, Vanille and Fang here for me, but most importantly, I had Snow. He had his arm around my shoulder and I leaned into him, "Snow, what are we going to do after all this?"

He squeezed me, "After we save the world? We are gonna live happily ever after." He laughed.

I pulled away and looked at him, "I'm being serious Snow, what's going to happen when Serah comes back? Are you going to leave me or stay?" I really had no idea with Snow what he was going to decide.

He looked at me with those beautiful blue eyes and smiled, "Hope, you are the one I love, I don't think about Serah anymore. The only things I have to worry about are you being happy and safe, and saving the world. Not Serah." He took my hands in a warm hold and kissed my fingers, "I'm going to stay." It felt amazing to hear all this.

We kept walking to the town square and I was in a total daze. My head was in the clouds and I wasn't coming down anytime soon. I had butterflies in my stomach and I couldn't stop smiling. 'So this is what love feels like?' I thought to myself. If that's what it felt like then I never wanted to not feel this way again.

"Hey Snow, I want to show you something." I took his hand and guided him into the center of the square, "Watch this." I stepped back from him and summoned the magic from my brand. I cast a single bolt of lightning into the sky and I immediately shot a fire bolt into the strike and it exploded. It showered sparks and ashes.

"Fireworks?" Snow smiled.

"Yep, I've been practicing. Come here, I'll show you." He stepped closer to me, "Hold out your hands." Snow held them out and I held onto them. "Alright, now focus on a straight line going from our hands into the sky. Pick an element of magic and send it into the sky."

I looked at Snow while he closed his eyes and concentrated. His brand glowed and from our hands an icicle shot into the air, "Good! Quick, shoot something else into it!" Snow sent another icicle into the air and it crashed into it's twin. When they collided it produced a small flurry.

"Did it work?" He had just opened his eyes.

"Yep! Try it again except this time, try fire. Fire is hard to control, but I know you can do it!" Snow blushed for the first time, that I had seen. He looked into my eyes and focused himself on me. A ball of fire had formed between our hands and Snow cast it into the sky. This flame was different though, it was green. The green had matched my eyes, "Snow!" I was sort of confused, I couldn't even change the color of my magic. He sent the second flame in after its mate and this one was blue! A blue that I only saw in Snow's eyes.

"Look up babe!" I did as Snow said and I saw the two colors swirling around each other. I looked down at Snow and he was looking up too. I soon found out that wasn't a good thing. Snow was the one controlling flames and I was his focus. He wasn't looking at me any more so his focus was gone. This meant his control was gone. I looked up to see the flames, which had spread out, falling.

Since Snow was much taller than me, I knew he would've been burned first, so I blew him back with an aerora and he landed on his back. The flames were closer now and getting bigger somehow. I summoned all the power I had to throw up a blanket of waterga into the flames. Conjuring that much of an element like that took a lot of power and I almost couldn't handle it. I threw it all up as hard as I could and the liquid blanket snuffed out the run-away flames.

With the last bit of energy I had, I sent a cura to Snow to wake him up.

I blacked out.

…

I woke up to see Hope laying there on the ground, soaked. I don't think I ever moved as fast as I did to pick him up. I held him tight and walked over to the stairs that led to 'our apartment'. When I got to the top, he woke up. "Snow, are you alright? Did I hurt you?"

"Oh sweetheart, don't you worry about me. We need to get you into bed alright?" I kissed him on the head and he put an arm around my neck. I pushed the door open and laid him on the couch, "Hope, we are gonna have to get you out of those clothes, you're soaked."

He sounded tired, exhausted, "Okay." He tried to sit up, but slouched back down. I lifted him into a sitting position and took his jacket off. I ran my hands under his shirt and took his arms out one by one and finally up over his head. Poor guy was too tired, he used all his energy making sure I didn't get hurt. That was my job, to protect him. I untied his shoes and removed them along with his socks. "Hope, babe, you can lay down again." This was going to be fun... his pants. I unbuckled them and slid them off. I felt his underwear to see if the water-soaked him all the way through, and sure enough, it had. I peeled off his underwear and tossed them aside.

Once again, Hope's lovely, pale body was exposed to me again. I was lost in him and stared at him. I was in my own world until I heard him say, "I'm cold." I snapped back to reality in full alert mode.

"Okay, I'm gonna take you to the bed and then I'll find you a blanket or something alright?" I lifted him up, and his skin was freezing. Hope shivered and I wrapped my arms tighter around him. I brought him over the bed and laid him down again. I quickly began to dig through cabinets and cupboards searching for something to keep my boy warm. I finally found a blanket, but it wasn't in the best condition. I gave up and just took off my trench coat. I went over to the bed and climbed in with him. I wrapped Hope in my coat and then pulled him close, "I'm so sorry Hope!"

"Don't apologize Snow. I love you." Hope said quietly and for some reason tears burned in my eyes. I pulled him into my chest so that way he wouldn't see. Hope spent all his energy on me because he loves me. If anything, I should have pushed him out of the way and took the hit. Not Hope. _My_ Hope.

…

I remembered falling asleep, but that was it. I woke up in Snow's coat and only his coat. It smelled like him, but where was he? I sat up and looked around the room. He wasn't there. I was confused. I looked out the door to the see if he might have been out there, but I only saw my clothes hanging over the railing. "Snow?" I called out to no one.

"Nope! Try again!" I heard a cheery voice with a strong Pulsian accent. Vanille. She came into the room from outside holding some fruit, "Here!" She tossed me a piece of fruit that I had found to be my favorite one here on Pulse.

"Where's Snow?" I bit into the fruit.

"Fang and him went hunting. What they'll find is a total mystery to me!" She laughed and sat down on the bed beside me, "They'll be back soon. Don't worry. Besides with you having a boyfriend, we haven't hung out in a while!" She frowned a bit.

"I know, I'm sorry. Do you wanna go walk around the village? I need to make sure my clothes are dry first." I stood up and my legs felt a little weak, but I could manage.

"Dry?"

I laughed, "I'll explain."

I dressed and we left to explore the town, "So you guys were making fireworks? Are you sure you've never been to Pulse? We would make fireworks all the time!" Vanille got really excited, "And he could change the color of his flames?!" The smile on her face couldn't describe how happy she really was.

"Yeah, and I can't even do that! Can you?" I was kind of annoyed, since my main job in battle was being a ravager.

"Yep! I learned how to. It's very easy. You just have to feel the color from your heart, since that's what we had to do before becoming l' Cies. The magic will express itself through your brand since it's an easier way to come out. You can even teach yourself to change the colors of the other elements too ya know. Watch." She cast a water spell and it came our purple.

"Well, I'll practice later, I'd rather not chance it. Maybe when Snow and Fang get back, we can put on a show when it gets darker! Does Fang ever do magic?" I thought it would be fun to put on a fireworks show for everyone.

"Not really, but she does have a few tricks up her sleeve too!"

We walked around for a while and talked about just everything there was for us to talk about, but it always seemed to end up with Snow and I. The best part, was that it wasn't even me bringing us up, Vanille kept bringing it up. She asked about every aspect of our relationship. The question that made me choke was, "So Hope, have you two had sex yet?"

I was caught off guard and I just as quickly felt embarrassed, "No, are we supposed to?"

"No! I didn't mean it like that! Don't do it until you know that you're ready." She nodded her head in a serious way to make sure she got her point across.

"I thought about it and today I saw him naked. To be honest with you..." I looked at her with wide eyes.

"Wha-" She looked down and then back at me, "Oh! OH! Well um." She blushed and giggled in a nervous way.

"Yeah."

…

I held Hope tight to make sure he was warm. I held him even after he fell asleep. He must've been really tired since he started to snore. I smiled and kissed his head. Then there was a knock on the door, "Yeah?"

"Well you don't have to be so rude about it." It was Fang, "I was thinking you and I could go hunting since we are all dying to have some meat instead of fruits all the time."

"Sure, I just have to figure out a way to not wake him up." I knew it wouldn't be hard since he was sleeping like a rock. I slid my arm out from under his head and he didn't move. I slowly crept off the bed and he just dug himself deeper into my coat. He looked beat. I just wanted to kiss him and hold him, but I knew that I should go out and have some fun without Hope for once.

"What's with him, he alright?" Fang looked at him with a worried look.

I felt awful, "Yeah, he saved me from a fire. Well fireworks, actually, but he used so much magic and energy saving me from it, that he passed out."

"Oh, well. How bad were the fireworks?" She put a hand on her hip.

The picture of the spirals flashed through my head, "They grew big enough to take up the entire square. Hope used enough water magic to put all of it out before it could hit the ground." I looked back down to Hope laying on the bed, "He saved me." I knelt beside him and ran my fingers through his hair.

"Well let him sleep. I'm sure he'll be alright without his boyfriend for a little while." She snickered at me and I looked at the floor. I kissed him on the head and we headed out. We decided to go hunt in the woods just passed the crystal-sand desert.

It was weird, none of us had ever been through a Pulsian forest, besides Fang and Vanille. "Some of the beasts around here aren't good to eat. Most of them are the ones we fight, but there are some other ones that hide in the trees. So we need to watch out." Fang looked at me with the most serious look.

"You got it boss!" I nodded my head to make sure she knew I understood.

We kept walking and we talked quietly so we didn't scare any of the animals, "Snow, I've got a question for ya." There was something in Fang's voice that sent a rush of paranoia through my entire body.

"Alright."

"Do you see a future with Hope? Because if not, then you ought to leave the kid alone. I've got a feeling that our journey here is almost over, and if you get your girl back and leave Hope. There will be hell to pay." Fang stopped and looked me dead in the eye.

I knew she meant every word and I was about to be completely honest with her.

…

Vanille and I returned to the square to see Lightning, Sazh, Fang and Snow sitting around a fire. It had started to get dark so Lightning jumped up when she saw us, "Where have you two been? You know there are C'eith around here!" Lightning tried to sound mad even though she knew we could handle ourselves. I looked passed her to Snow. He mouthed a 'hello' to me and smiled. I tried not to laugh.

"We were just walking around the village, but we were mostly down by the basin." Vanille had decided to speak up and tell Light where we were.

"Alright, next time tell one of us before you go." With that she went to resume her place at the fire. I walked over to Snow and sat next to him, and Vanille sat next to me. Since we couldn't exactly kiss or touch each other in an affectionate way Snow, just swung his arm around my shoulder.

"So Hope, Fang told us that you know how to make fireworks." Sazh said with excitement.

"Yeah, so can Vanille. We were gonna wait until it got darker before we started that." I got red since all eyes were on me. I wanted to get closer to Snow so I wouldn't feel so on the spot.

We had talked for about an hour and by that time dinner was cooked and it was pretty dark outside. We ate what Snow and Fang brought back and cleaned up what was left. Vanille and I stood up and began shooting magic into the air. First, we started mixing fire and lightning and everyone else clapped and cheered. "Hope, you wanna try something cool? I call it the 'static breeze'." I nodded my head, "Alright, I'll throw up a thundaga and you throw up an aeroga. You've gotta get it before the lightning explodes." Vanille shot into the sky a powerful thunder spell and I threw up the wind after it.

The aeroga collided with the thundaga just as it exploded. When the wind opened up, the lightning ran all throughout the gust in a dazzle of blue surges. Everyone's hair stood up, besides Snows because of his bandanna, "That's why I call it 'static breeze'!" Vanille laughed as well as all of us. "Alright throw a little water in there before the lightning's gone." I did as I was told and when the water hit the electricity, it burst into flames. I concentrated as hard as I could to turn the flames into different colors. The flames went white and Vanille fed more fira and aero into the blanket of light in the sky. The flames turned blue, deep blue, like Snow's eyes. Everyone cheered and I heard Snow over everything.

"Alright you guys, throw some water up there! Keep the fire too." Fang had come over to us with her staff. Vanille had sent some water into the cloud and I threw more fire into the mix, "Thank you! Now go have a seat, time for the big finish!" We went to sit down and Fang leaped into the air.

She stabbed the center of the cloud and it all spiraled in toward her. When the flames hit the water it created a massive cloud of steam and Fang was lost. Out of the bottom, Fang dropped to the ground and the steam began to fall like a solid ball of blue. The steam glowed a bright blew. Fang swung her staff, and when it hit the blue mass the head of a dragon came out and opened its mouth. The cloud wasn't a cloud any more, it had become the rest of the dragon. And it was flying at us at an incredible speed. It opened its mouth to swallow all of us and as it was about to devour us, it dissipated and lifted into the sky. Fang was standing before us when the beast was gone, "How'd you guys like that?"

We all cheered and clapped. Vanille nudged me, "I told you she has a few tricks up her sleeve. The dragon is her trademark and she has only done it a few times. She was the only person in Oerba to be able to do something of that level."

"Yep, so that means you guys are pretty special." Fang laughed and sat down.

We all sat in silence for a minute and then something happened that I never thought could've happened.

…

I knew that if I didn't say now, I never would. There was a knot in my stomach as a I took in a breath to speak up, "So everybody." All eyes were on me, "After we destroy Orphan, I'm not going back with Serah." There, I said it. But not all of it.

Lightning jumped toward me and pointed her gun-blade at me, "Why? I knew I should never have trusted you!" Lightning shouted at me. Next thing I knew I was on the ground looking up at the stars and my jaw hurt.

"Light!" I heard Hope yell and he ran to stand over me. "He's not going back with Serah because he's staying with me!" Lightning was in mid-swing when Hope jumped in the way. I slowly began to get up.

"What are you talking about?" I could tell that Hope was scared. I stood behind him and wrapped my arms around him.

"Light, um Snow and I are kind of..." He trailed off and all I wanted to do was make him run so he wouldn't have to deal with this.

Vanille, Fang and Sazh had already rushed over to us, "Lightning, don't be mad at them. I know you're pissed at Snow and probably even hate him, but right now you need to listen. When the two of us were hunting, I asked him if he saw a future with Hope. You know what he told me? He told me that he would die if it meant that Hope would be happy. He told me that he would do whatever it took to save the world just so that way Hope would be alright. He loves him Lightning, you can't change that." Fang had stepped in front of me and Hope.

Vanille came and stood next to Fang, "Hope told me that he loves Snow. Hope said that if when we save the world and Snow wanted to be with Serah after all, that he would let him go. He wouldn't even put up a fight because he would rather be hurt and alone than Snow to ever have to not be happy." Lightning face was still unchanged, but I could hear Hope sniffle.

Hope turned around to face me, "Did you really mean that?"

"Yes, with all of my heart. I don't want to lose you Hope. I haven't loved anyone like I love you." I wanted to cry hearing what Vanille said, "Did you mean what you said?"

I wiped a tear going down his cheek, "Every word. I love you Snow." Hope started crying and I just held him close to me with everyone else standing between us and Lightning. I squeezed him and I let him cry.

"So you really do love him?" Lightning put a hand on her hip, "Then when Serah comes back you're going to tell her." She stormed off into the apartments.

We all let out a sigh of relief when we finally heard the door shut, "Thank you guys!"

Sazh finally spoke up, "Well if you guys do love each other, then we are here to support you. Lightning's just upset cuz you're supposed to be engaged to her sister, that's all." Sazh patted me on the shoulder, "As for me, I'm going to bed! Goodnight guys!" Sazh headed to the apartment that he shared with Lightning, I had a feeling that he would try to talk to her about all this since Sazh had a way of being a mediator between Lightning and who ever else it may be.

I sighed and decided I was ready for bed, "Alright, I think we've had enough excitement for one night, right?" We all laughed and said goodnight. Hope and I began to walk toward our own apartment. I felt something cool slide its way in between my fingers. This was the first time Hope and held my hand when we were walking. I tightened my hand around his and he squeezed his fingers. I could get used to this!

…

I could not believe that Snow told Lightning. I was glad though, now we didn't have to run around behind her back, right? On top of that, ever since Vanille and I talked earlier I couldn't stop thinking of Snow... below the belt. I wasn't ready for sex, but we could do other things without having to go all the way. Naturally, Vanille's instinct to fill people in on every piece of information imaginable, forced me to find out about these 'other things'.

I laced my fingers into Snow's and it felt great to be able to do that, "Hey Snow?"

He squeezed my hand, "Yeah babe?" I looked up to meet his eyes.

"Thank you for telling Light." I smiled.

"She was going to find out anyways. Either someone tells her, or she finds out when I don't go with Serah." Just as Snow finished his sentence we were at the bottom of the stair case leading to 'our' apartment. He swept me up and carried me bridal style. I laughed. I kissed him when we reached the top. Vanille had told me to pay attention to him when we kissed, and that's what I did. He always closed his eyes, he tensed up a bit. If he was happy, like in this case, he could nibble on my bottom lip. When he was upset about something, he would wrap an arm around my waist and with his free he would put his fingers on my chin.

When I pulled my lips away from his I asked him, "Did you notice that when you kiss me, when you're happy, you bite my lip?" He blushed and looked down.

He looked back at me and smiled, "No, but I'm guessing you did? Did you not want me to do that?"

I kissed him, "I like it, so you should keep doing it!" I nodded with a smile. Snow had set me down and we walked into the room. I stripped down to my underwear and laid down. Snow did the same. Seeing him almost naked again made me excited, but I tried to contain myself. I burrowed into Snow's chest and he pulled me closer to him.

He kissed the top my head, "You know what I noticed when I kiss you? Every single time I kiss you, your shoulders relax and you sigh. When you're in a good mood, you arch your back and wrap your arms tight around my neck." He giggled, "But when you're pissed off, you keep your arms at your side. When you're sad you grab hold of my jacket and keep me close. But you know what's the best part about kissing you?" He rested his chin on my head.

"What?"

Snow wrapped his arms around me even tighter, "I fall more in love with you, and I can't wait for the next time I get to kiss you." Upon hearing this I smiled and tears formed in my eyes. I sniffled and hugged him.

"I don't ever want to be without you Snow. I love you and just being close to you makes me happy. Every time I've needed a friend you're here. If after we destroy Orphan and something happens to us, I want you to know that you are the best thing that has ever happened to me. I know I'm young, but you make me happy." I kissed the spot where my lips were already touching his chest.

Snow ran a warm hand up my back and through my hair, "Don't worry Hope, _your_ hero will always be here for you." I looked up at him and saw his smile in the moonlight. His face was lit up, especially his eyes. I looked in his eyes and saw complete honesty. I inched up to kiss him, and as if to prove him right, I sighed and wrapped my arms around his neck. "I love you Hope."

Snow grabbed my waist and pulled mine to his. He slid his hands behind me and squeezed my ass. All the while, still kissing. I didn't know how he knew exactly what to do. When he first grabbed me, I gasped and he smiled. His lips slowly moved up my jaw and started nibbling on my ear.

…

There was something about Hope, that just made me want him. He looked amazing casting those spells, he looked so sexy with the fire making his face light up. Walking away from the square, when he took my hand, it was like he had sparked a fire that was finally able to burn a bright as it wanted.

I kissed his neck and held on to him. Hope grabbed a handful of my hair and he let his head fall back. I kissed down to his chest, his skin was always so cool and soft. I began to trail my way back up to his neck, but Hope came down crashing his lips into mine. The sweet taste of his lips made it hard not to break down and fuck him on the spot. He laced his fingers into mine and pushed me on my back. He climbed on top of me and straddled my waist. He bent down to kiss me and the tip of his tongue brushed against my top lip. I kissed him back and he moved his tongue into my mouth. I was surprised and extremely turned on. He still held my hands down, even though I wanted to find my hands all over his body. Our tongues were moving in between each others as we kissed. For never having kissed anyone but me, Hope never failed to shock me with his lips.

I began to feel soft, cool kisses on my neck and a shiver went down my back. Hope released my hands and put his on my chest. He licked and nibbled on my nipples. I bit my lip in pleasure. Hope licked down the center of my stomach followed by his hands. He got up off on my lap and positioned himself in between my legs. He kissed at the skin just above the elastic on my boxers and something inside my head clicked, "Hope, I know you want to celebrate, but don't you think we are moving a little fast?" I didn't want him to stop, I wanted this to keep going, but I had to make sure Hope wanted this.

"Well I wasn't planning on having _sex_, sex." He shrugged.

I smiled at him, "Hope, unless you are completely ready, I don't think we should go any further. I'm not saying I don't want you, because I do, really bad. I'm just saying that your first time should be special and you should only do it when you are sure you want to." I took his hands and kissed his fingers. "Alright kiddo?"

"Alright." He smiled and crawled up to lay on my chest.

I laughed, "Do you have any idea what you do to me?" I put one hand on the back of his head and the other on the arm that Hope rested across my chest.

"I've got a pretty good idea." He giggled and I did too.

I ruffled his hair, "Alright babe, let's get some shut-eye." I kissed him on the head and shut my eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

If It All Went the Right Way

Chapter 2

I stayed awake for a little while after Snow said goodnight. I laid there in his arms thinking about what's beyond all this. What was going to happen after Oerba, after Cocoon? If we destroy the world, we kill millions of people and go into crystal stasis. If we don't, then we turn into C'eith. The thought of all this scared me. When the problems are larger than just your life, you don't need a hero, you need a miracle. I fell asleep shortly after all thinking about all this.

In my dream I was walking along the beach in Bodhum, but I was the only one there. This time, though, I was controlling myself. I could walk where ever I wanted and I knew it. I walked down the beach toward the vestige that sat about 300 yards away. I was already l' Cie and I was dreaming, so I was pretty sure I was safe going up to it. As I approached I could see someone standing there with pink hair and a white shirt and a skirt. She looked like Lightning and when I made that connection, I knew exactly who she was. They say that the people in our dreams that we've 'never' met before, are people the we have seen but never have talked to or gotten to know. This time _they_ were wrong. I had never met Serah, I had never seen her before. I kept walking toward her, not knowing why I was or why I didn't just turn around and run when I had the chance. I had reached the base of the vestige and there she was with a smile on her face.

"Hey there!" She said and came over to greet me, "You woke me up!"

I wanted to wake up so bad, but I couldn't. "Hi, and I did?"

She giggled, "Yeah! So where is everyone else, did the Purge get all of Bodhum?" She looked around with a confused look on her face.

"Well I'm actually asleep right now and this is all a dream to me." I looked down, I couldn't bring myself to look her in the eye. I almost wanted to tell her about Snow and I, but I wasn't sure if that was a good idea.

She sat down, looking sad. "Oh. Well I'm Serah. I'm supposed to be in crystal stasis."

I sat down in front of her, "I'm Hope and I'm supposed to be saving the world with your sister." Her eyes lit up.

"You know Lightning?! Do you know Snow? He's my fiancée." She looked so happy to hear some familiar names.

"I know both of them." I looked down again.

"What's wrong?"

Damn, why does this have to be going on? I didn't care if this was real or just a lucid dream, I just wanted this to be over. I would rather stay up all night and be exhausted tomorrow than have to be sitting here with the one person that I have no desire to meet what-so-ever. "About Snow..."

"Yeah? Is he alright?"

Here goes nothing, "He told Lightning last night that when we save Cocoon, that he's not going back with you." I said it, and whether this was real or not, it sure felt it.

She gasped and I heard her try not to cry, "Why?"

"Because he is staying with me." As soon as I finished that sentence, I woke up. The sun was up and in my face. I squeezed my eyes shut and felt around for Snow. He wasn't there. I got up and looked around the apartment, no where. I got dressed, headed outside and down the stairs. I saw him looking out at the water, leaning up against a street pole.

I crept up behind him and wrapped my hands around his waist. I squeezed him and he tied his fingers into mine, "Good morning. Are we the only ones up?"

"Nope, you are actually the last one up. I told everyone I would wait for you, so they went ahead to check everything out." It sounded like there was something wrong.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yeah. I'm just thinking about what's going to happen next. Will we stay together? Will we turn to crystal? I don't know. I guess I have to think about it now since I have someone to lose."

I let go of him and went around to face him, "You know, you've been strong for me and now it's my turn to be strong for you. I know you're supposed to be my hero, but every once in a while, the hero needs saving too."

…

Hope hugged me, "Everything is going to be okay. It just has to." Coming from anyone else, I wouldn't have believed them, but Hope lived up to his name and made me believe him. "We are going to save Cocoon and everyone in it! We are all going to be heroes!" He lifted himself from me and smiled wide. I ruffled his hair and pulled him into me as tight as I could without hurting him.

"You know, everyday, I ask myself what I would do without you." I smiled and rubbed his back, "We should get going though, we have got a long day ahead of us." I never wanted to let him go, if we could just stay here together forever I would be happy.

We walked together through Oerba, upstairs, through a building and to the roof where everyone else was. I felt adrenaline pumping hard when Lightning made with me. _I shouldn't be scared of her, I'm not with her sister anymore. _Everyone, but Lightning greeted us. We began our walk across the bridge. It looked like it was going to fall if you stepped on the wrong spot. Naturally, I kept Hope close to me. I knew he didn't like it when I did it, but I didn't want him to get hurt so he eventually just let me hold on to him.

Vanille told stories about when the bridge actually safe to be on, the people of Oerba would ride carts down to the island below to play and gather. Getting there, though, was no longer possible because the bridge had collapsed not far off in the distance.

I kept seeing something out of the corner of my eye, but when I would look it was gone. When we got closer to the end of the bridge, I finally saw it, "It's that damn bird again!" I pointed to it and everyone looked. It came down in front of us and faded into a purple cloud.

"Ragnarok. Come Day of Wrath, O Pulse l'Cie... Embrace thy fate, thine home to burn... That fallen souls might bear our plea... To hasten the Divine's return. O Piteous Wanderer, Ragnarok... Make of this day a brave epoch." Serah was walking toward us when the smoke cleared, "Deliver the Divine. Ragnarok." She kept coming toward us and then to me. She was saying something, but the blood rushing to my ears wouldn't let me make out what it was. I saw Hope get really pissed, so I pushed her off of me.

"You get it now. There are no gods with miracles to save us, no matter where you look. That's why we have to call one. Destroy Orphan. We'll save the world!" I knew there was something wrong, that couldn't have been Serah. Just as I thought this, she turned into Barthandelus.

I couldn't remember what happened next, but I remember picking myself up off the ground after getting hit with a spell. I ran back to the front with Fang and Hope. I stood in front and guarded them, while Hope used his magic to help us and Fang used spells to inflict status ailments on Barthandelus. We had inflicted enough ailments and had gotten enough status boosters to start to stagger him. Hope and I switched to ravaging while Fang went commando. When he was finally staggered, I switched to commando and we all went full force to take him out.

We had almost beat him when his face opened up into cannons and sent out a blast of energy. I didn't have enough time to defend myself before it hit me. All three of us were knocked down. Fang and I got up without a scratch, but Hope got up with a bloody nose and cut on his cheek. I threw a potion to him to lift some of the pain, but I knew it wouldn't be enough. I wanted to do something, but I didn't know the healing magic the he did. "Heal yourself Hope! Now!" I shouted to him, I didn't want him to get anymore hurt because I knew he couldn't take much more.

Hope was in mid cast when a fire spell hit him in the chest. He fell back and was out. I blacked out. Fang told me that I ran up to Barthandelus and punched him in the face hard enough to crack it and he was done. When I calmed back down, I remembered that Hope was still on the ground. I ran to him and dropped to my knees. I lifted him up, "Hope?!" I pushed my fingers to his neck and felt his pulse was faint. I couldn't breath. I clenched my teeth in anger and fear. I felt the hot tears burning down my cheeks. I held my hand above his chest to try and heal him, but nothing was happening. "Why aren't you doing anything?!" I shouted at everyone.

A tear drop hit my hand and it lit up in blue. I put my hand to his chest and the blue went into him. After a second, his breathing picked up and the cut on his cheek disappeared. He started to squirm a little bit, "Hope? Are you alright?" I brushed the hair out his face.

He opened his eyes and I had never been more excited to see those beautiful green eyes. "Snow?" He whispered.

"I'm here baby, don't worry." I kissed him on the head. I picked him up and turned around. Barthandelus was gone, but where he was, stood an airship.

Fang waved everyone in the direction of the ship, "Let's get out of here, we've got a job to do!" We all listened and boarded. I was last to get on with Hope. I stood against the wall holding him. Out of reflex Hope grabbed my shirt and slept. I couldn't help but feel guilty that it was my fault he was hurt, but why didn't anyone else help him?

"Why didn't any of you help him?" I said to everyone. I kept my voice low so I didn't wake him up. Everyone looked down except Lightning.

"I said not to." She had a straight face that showed no emotion. _Was she really going to take her anger out on Hope too?_ My blood boiled hearing this.

"Why? Is it not enough to punish me, but everyone else around you too? Maybe you should destroy Orphan alone so we don't have to be bothered with your shitty outlook on everything that moves." I never broke eye contact with her. I did see her ball up a fist though. "Honesty is a real bitch and obviously the toughest bitch of them all can't handle it. I think it's time that you act like there is life beyond the battle." She looked angry, but her shoulders dropped when she finally realized I was right.

Everyone was quiet, but for their own reasons. I knew Fang had something to say, but knew to be quiet. Vanille most likely wanted this to stop before it got worse. Sazh, well, I'm sure he just thought it was stupid and decided to stay out of it. I'm sure Hope would've said something if he was awake.

Lightning looked out the window with her arms crossed and just tuned us all out. I looked down at Hope, who was still just a small bundle in my arms. His grip on my shirt tightened and the look on his face was full of fear. He mumbled something, but I couldn't hear it. "Leave... me alone."

"Hope? Wake up." I said, shaking him a little bit.

Vanille jumped, "Don't wake him up Snow!" She was frantic.

"Why not?"

Fang spoke up.

**Author's Note:** I'm going to try and upload a chapter every week. Enjoy!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"You might not get all of him back. Someone is inside his head, or he's in theirs. He has got to get rid of them or else it can mess him up." What was she talking about, how could he do that? How could someone to that to him?

"How?" I just stared at him and wondered.

…

I was trying to heal myself, but I got hit. I was out for a minute or two before Snow woke me up. When he lifted me up, all I felt was pain shooting through my torso, but I didn't have the energy to tell him. I was fading in and out. I could hear, but I couldn't react. I felt warmth on my chest and after a second or two, the warmth spread to my whole body. I moved around a little bit and I opened my eyes. I saw Snow's face, his eyes were worried and heavy. I saw the wet trails on either side that let me know he was crying. "Snow?" I couldn't speak up, but I could make noise so that was good.

Snow said something, but I wasn't paying attention. I felt him pick me up and I turned into his chest. I fell asleep.

I 'woke' up in a long dark hallway. There were torches hanging on the wall every fifty yards or so in front of me and behind. I looked up to see that it was open. It was dark and there were black and deep violet clouds rolling in the sky. Not knowing what to do, I starting walking. Torch after torch I passed with no door or sign of an exit. Just when I thought that the whole place couldn't have gotten any weirder, I heard a man's voice. "Deliver the Divine. Ragnarok."

"Leave me alone!" I grabbed my boomerang.

"Poor little l'Cie, you try your hardest to be strong, but just like everyone else you are weak." This time the voice was closer, but was a woman's voice.

"I'm not the weak one here, show yourself!" I shouted into the darkness. At a distance I could see more than just one something coming forward. When I could see what it was, I was confused and sort of scared. There was a woman in a white cloak and a man with a black cloak, holding hands, talking toward me.

"Boy who was one, but now is whole. Bring forth our end, do as you are told. Only one can take the form, the key to death's sacred lock. I choose you to change, evolve into the demolition. Ragnarok." Hearing them say this I knew that it wasn't two people, it was Orphan. I remembered some of the stories I was told about Orphan and it's end.

_As one god bringeth forth the next_

_Let it's second form become erect._

_With Judgment taken_

_and Judgment passed,_

_Must be split in twane and no longer last._

_From it's ash come unto us_

_The great Orphan!_

_Ragnarok, it's only release._

_Ashes to Ashes_

_Dust to Dust_

"I'm not doing it, so just leave me alone!" I shouted at it. The man held out his hand and shot a purple bolt of lightning at me. I dodged it and took a defensive stance.

"There is no reason to refuse, the end of it all is near." The man in black flicked his wrist and I felt a sharp pain in the back of my leg. I buckled and fell. The woman waved her hand and I was lifted into the air. "We must only ask for compliance." The man held up his hand and the clouds above my head started to rain. The rain went on for about a minute and it was freezing. The kind of cold that makes your breathing hitch. When it stopped, I hung in the air teeth chattering and soaked. "Once more we ask for your deliverance. Become Ragnarok."

I was never one for swearing, but I deemed it appropriate, "Go fuck yourself!" I tried to shake myself down, I thought that if I hit the ground from up here I could wake up, right? Wrong, I could never have been more wrong. I dropped. I couldn't breathe when I made contact. It took me a second to get up and breathe somewhat normally. "Is that all you got?" I wiped a little blood from my lip.

Both people held out their unoccupied hands and sent out electricity. My body lit up in the most excruciating pain I had ever felt. I screamed out in pain and felt my body tightening up. I couldn't move to fight it. "Oh foolish l'Cie, you will oblige. We do not doubt that for a second. You just need to let the anger and darkness inside take over. Let it empower you." It stopped its torture long enough to talk, but started back up once it was finished.

I was about to let go. I couldn't take it much longer and I could feel my body giving up. My eyesight was fading when I heard a voice, "Leave him alone!" It was a woman. She sounded familiar. I didn't have to think long before I knew who the voice belonged to. My mother.

"And just who might this be?" The electricity stopped.

"None of your damn business. Hope, this is _your_ dream, not this thing's. You are as powerful as you want to be here. Just because they are trying to hurt you, doesn't mean you have to let them. Your name is Hope for a reason." When she started to talk, I listened to every word and realized that she was right. If I'm dreaming then I can change it. I closed my eyes and focused on being on the ground.

I felt myself slowly lowering to the ground. "Hope will only get you so far human. Deliver us!" Orphan said and started to shoot rays of darkness at me. I deflected them.

"I can't stay much longer Hope, but remember, love conquers all. Love is the light in the darkness." She turned to talk away but faded before she could turn all the way around. _Love. That's the answer._ I focused on love, I focused on the people I loved. I felt a heat in my core and felt it expand throughout my body. I let it explode. A sphere of yellow energy was unleashed into the entire realm I was in. It destroyed the walls and burned up the clouds. Everything was reduced to nothing but Orphan and I.

"I pity you. A simple task is presented to you and one can not except the offer."

I extended my arms out and pulled in the sphere. I condensed it to a ball in the palms of my hands. "Get out!" I shouted at Orphan. I threw the ball and it detonated the very moment it hit them. It exploded into a wave of blue, the color of Snow's eyes.

When the blue subsided, I was the only one left. "Thanks mom."

… I woke up.

…

I slid down the wall, with my knees to my chest, making my body a cradle for him. He still held on tight to my shirt, I thought he was going to tear it because he would pull it closer to him. Fang and Vanille were keeping an eye on Hope. I just looked at him. Worried. I knew he could fight off what ever was in his head, but what if he got hurt? What would happen?

Hope's breathing started to speed up. He broke out into a sweat. I looked at his face and saw blood going down his lip. I wiped it off and held my thumb on his lip to stop the bleeding. I didn't know what to do, I couldn't do anything. I wanted to protect him, but I couldn't. Just as soon as he was sweating, he was shivering. I pulled him into me to try and warm him up, but he started screaming. He was screaming in pain and I couldn't do anything to stop it. His small body was tightening up as if he was being electrocuted.

He screamed out and I just held him. My eyes started to fill up with tears. I had never felt so useless. Everyone was looking at this point, Vanille was even crouched down beside me. Hope stopped screaming after about a minute, but his body was still tightened up. His breathing slow and wheezy. "Is he going to be alright?" I said through clenched teeth.

Vanille looked at me, "He will be alright as long as he can get rid of the attacker." I knew she was right, but at this point all I wanted to do was help him.

His body was stiff for about another minute when it finally relaxed and his breathing started to level out. It was quiet for a bit and Hope's breathing had returned to normal. He had relaxed so I could hold him better. He still had a tight grip on my shirt, so I knew that was good. He turned himself into me and said, "Get... out!"

We all watched him, he let go of my shirt. I thought the worst, until I saw his eyes open. "Hey there! You alright?" I was so excited to see him awake, but I kept my voice down for him.

"Snow?!" His eyes lit up and he threw his arms around my neck. I laughed and hugged him. Vanille and Fang were glad that he woke up just fine, but they knew that it was time to explain.

Hope had just put his lips to mine when Fang decided to start asking questions, "So Hope, where did you go?"

I didn't want him to pull away after just having him back, "What do you mean?"

"Where were you in your dream? Who was there?" Vanille asked in place of her older, taller counterpart. "Tell us what happened."

Hope turned his body around so that way he was leaning up against my chest. I took this opportunity to put my hands on his waist. "I woke up in a dark hallway. There were torches in front of me and behind. There was no ceiling, just clouds that weren't real clouds. They were like concentrated darkness in the sky. It wasn't anywhere I've been, so I don't think I was in my own head."

"You weren't, but go on." Fang said.

Hope hesitated a little bit and I took his hands, "I started walking and I heard a man's voice. He said something about Ragnarok. Then there was a woman's voice telling me I was weak. I kept walking and coming toward me, was a man in black holding hands with a woman in white. They both spoke at the same time and then I knew it was Orphan. I remember stories from when I was little, about Orphan. As Barthandelus becomes weaker, Orphan wakes up more. They kept telling me to become Ragnarok and to kill them. I kept telling them no." Hope finished telling his story and when he was done I pulled him close to me and kissed him on the cheek.

"Your mom was right babe. Love does conquer all." Hope kissed me back.

Vanille stood up, "Well, you're safe and that's all that matters, right?"

"Not quite." Fang looked down to the floor. We all looked at her, even Lightning. "People that can do what you do, Hope, are called 'leavers'. Leavers can leave the reality that they are in and, with their spirits, go to other places and see people that are in crystal stasis or dead."

I didn't understand what the problem was, "That's bad because?"

"It takes very powerful magic to do it, and with Hope being able to go somewhere he has never been, he is extremely powerful. Only Pulsians can do it." Vanille said.

I could feel Hope tense up, "How could I be from Pulse if both of my parents were from Cocoon in the first place?" He squeezed my hands tighter.

"Obviously one of your parents lied to you. Gran Pulse is not small by any means. People that had come to Oerba traveled great distances. Farther than most are willing to travel. So I'm sure that there are many places that aren't just full of Ceith." Fang told Hope.

I never liked talking about parents, and hearing that one of Hope's could be lying about being from Cocoon was starting to piss me off. "Does it matter at this point where his parents are from?"

"Snow." Hope glared at me, "You've got to let me handle this, alright?" I couldn't disobey him. My flaw. I just nodded like an idiot. Hope looked at Fang, "Can I learn to control this 'leaving' thing? Does it just happen at random?" God, Hope sounded so sexy when he talked like this. I flashed back to just last night. How he took control, damn! I never wanted him to stop! _Shut up! You can't think like __that now! But he's so beautiful. Stop!_

Vanille nodded her head, "You can learn to control it, but it takes time. When you stress your body, like we have been, you are more likely to lose control. Some people, though, learned to do it whenever they want to."

"Well, if you can leave your own space, then you must be well on your way to mastering it." Fang said. "Right now though, we need to focus on Cocoon."

Sazh turned around from his spot in the pilot's seat, "So what do we do about Orphan?"

"We help Orphan. What else can we do? If we can manage to keep it safe-"

Lightning broke her own silence, "Another war breaks out somewhere down the road. We're l'Cie. It's not like we can make people stop fighting." She turned around and folded her arms.

Hope stood up from my lap, "Lightning, you told me on Cocoon, it's not a question of can or can't. We just do it. That's our only choice this time." I stood up beside Hope, "Maybe it won't do much. Maybe only one person will listen to us. But even then, isn't trying better than doing nothing?"

Vanille jumped up and clapped her hands together, "Because ripples can make waves!"

Sazh turned back around and looked out the window, "Okay, kids have gone crazy."

XXX

_Even if we were chasing shadows, our minds were made up. We'd realized along the way that choice was the only thing we had left. Maybe we'd fall short. Maybe we'd never even come close. But someone, someday, would know we tried._

_ -Vanille_

XXX

I started to get nervous when we broke into Eden. There were crowds of people on both sides of the road, cameras projecting all the noise and festivities of the race to giant screens all down the track. Lightning led the brigade with Odin in gestalt form. Fang rode on Bahumut not far behind. Snow and Sazh drove their Eidolons: Stiria and Nix, and Brynhildr. Vanille followed next to Alexander and I with Hecatoncheir.

We rode on the track with the racers, and just when I thought it couldn't get any scarier, I looked up at the screens. Snow was on the screen holding up his fist. The arm he held up was the arm with his brand. People all over the place screamed and began to run.

I heard gun fire and saw the Corps units running out to stop us. They brought their bio-organic weapons with them too. Behemoths and other monsters. I started to cast firaga spells to knock some of the soldiers out of the way. Light jumped from Odin and he changed to his normal from. They both hacked their way through soldiers and beasts. Fang dropped to the ground and began to run, Bahumut had changed back and began swinging his claws. Destroying almost everything between him and Fang. She jumped up and Bahumut went back into gestalt mode.

There was a narrow path for Snow and Sazh to drive through which ended up just before the end of the stands. The both of them left their Eidolons to fight, the Shiva sisters and Brynhildr sprang to action.

Bullets whizzed past my face as I jumped from Alexander's shoulder to the ground. I ran forward casting as many firaga spells into the sky as possible. When they exploded, they formed a massive blanket of flames. "Now!" I screamed. The plan was that when the flames began to fall, Fang would swoop through with Bahumut and lift us all up above it. Then Bahumut would use his Mega Flare to wipe out the rest of the militia.

We all called back our Eidolons except Fang and we we lifted up by Bahumut. "Vanille, can you and Hope pull all of that into a ball?" Fang asked.

"Yes." We both said at the same time. Vanille and I looked down at the flames sitting above the track. I could see the soldiers using their manadrive powers, but it was nowhere near enough. I focused on the flames, I held out my hands and pulled them toward each other. When I did this, all of the fire pulled itself into a giant sphere.

"Alright. Let 'em have it!" Fang called to her dragon. A gigantic ball of energy grew in front of us, and just as it was there it shrunk to the size of a fist. Bahumut sent the energy into the center of the flames. We all expected a massive explosion, but the exact opposite happened. Everything was pulled into it; cars, soldiers, monsters. When it had stopped pulling everything into it's center, it unleashed a wave of light that completely destroyed the road and surrounding buildings. None of it was left. It looked as if it never existed. I was horrified at the sight, but I knew that it was do or die and too late to back down.

Bahumut flew us to a part of the road that was much narrower and we jumped down. Snow landed on his ankle and dropped to the ground. In front of us, there about ten Sanctum soldiers headed toward us. Bullets flying everywhere, I ran to the front to help Snow.

I knelt down beside him, "Let me see it, quick!" He pulled up the leg of his pants and I saw that his leg was broken. I didn't have magic strong enough to heal a broken bone. The soldiers weren't too far away and they were still shooting. I tried to cure him to alleviate some of the pain while we fought them off.

The soldiers had reached and everyone sprang to action, but me. I couldn't let Snow stay there unprotected. I used a cura spell on his leg because he still whined with immense pain. I looked up to see how everyone was fighting, and I was terrified. The soldiers were winning. "No!" I said under my breath.

The soldiers weren't normal, their armor was a light blue and it glowed. Crystal! I saw one soldier had punched Fang to the ground and another was fighting with Light. I cured Snow again. I looked up to see two soldiers coming toward me. I panicked, I didn't know what to do. As they reached there hands to grab me, I held out my hand. "No! Go away!" I shouted at the soldiers. My hand lit up bright yellow and a wave of bright white light blasted out from my palm. The armor on the soldiers in front of me disintegrated. Their bodies were sent flying through the air. The light extended to the other soldiers and their armor was lost in it too.

My hand stopped glowing and all I could do was stare at it, "What was that?" Vanille cheered.

"I have no idea." I looked at everyone else and sent cura spells out to them. I looked back at Snow, he passed out from the pain. "I need help! Snow's leg is broken and I can't heal it!" Everyone hurried over to us. "Light and Vanille, you guys know healing magic, we should try healing him at the same time." The three of us sent cure spells to Snow, with no impact. "Try cura instead this time." We did, same result.

The beholder of all information, Fang, gave a suggestion, "Why don't the three of you hold hands, and Hope you draw the power from the other two."

We linked hands and I put my hand on his leg, "Snow, this might hurt." I began to summon a cure spell, but I could immediately feel something stopping me. Lightning. I could feel her blocking the current, "Lightning, what's wrong?" I was starting to get pissed off.

"She doesn't truly want to help him. You can't use healing magic on people that you don't want to help. l'Cie or not." Fang looked to the ground.

"What are we supposed to do? We have to help him!" I could feel my face becoming red and the tears filling my eyes. I knew, though, that we couldn't stay here much longer, we had to keep moving no matter how slow we were going. I had to make a decision: stay and be killed, or get moving and maybe be killed.

Sazh pointed and yelled, "PSICOM!"

Everything went white.

**Author's Note: **I tried to use some of the actual dialogue, but change up when it was said. Next chapter is gonna have some surprises in it.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

I remember jumping down and hearing a loud crack. I collapsed in pain. I broke my leg. Everything was blurry, but I remember Hope kept healing me, and nothing worked. The pain just kept getting worse. I passed out.

I kept coming in and out, but I was out more than in. Hope woke me up, and I noticed that we were on the back of Bahumut again. But it was just Hope, Fang and I. I was able to block out the pain at this point so I could talk, "Where's everyone else?"

"They're down below clearing a path." Hope had a hold of one of my hands. I looked into his eyes and knew exactly what he was thinking. He was blaming himself because he can't heal me.

"Hope, sweetheart, it's okay. Cheer up kiddo." I ruffled his hair, "I might just have Lightning cut it off. She can make herself feel better and I won't have a broken leg anymore." Hope laughed.

"You're awful!" Hope punched me in the shoulder, "And besides, I wouldn't let her have the satisfaction." Hope leaned over to kiss me. For the split second his lips touched mine, all the pain I felt was gone.

"Hate to interrupt, but we're landing." Bahumut dropped down to the road where Vanille, Sazh and Lightning were waiting. Sazh met us so he could help me down. Hope and Sazh did a great job of making sure my leg never touched the ground.

We walked over to the elevators, but got stopped, "I see your power has grown, Mr. Villiers." He laughed at me, "No matter. We will lay down our lives if that is what it takes to stop you." Rosch.

"Oh, we're on the same side here. We came back to stop all this!" I said to him.

Rosch was inside this giant machine. If only he wasn't, even with a broken leg, I could take him down in a heartbeat. "Nevertheless, you are a l'Cie. We can trust the pawns no more than the fal'Cie who move them. Humanity's fate rests in it's own hands."

Lightning, Vanille and Sazh ran to meet him. "Snow, see the car over there? That's where we need to get to." Hope told me. Sure, if I wasn't handicapped I could get there no problem, but it would take a while to get over there now.

"Alright. Let's get going then." Fang had stood between us and the battle deflecting bullets that came toward us. We slowly, but surely, made our way to the car. Hope slowly let me down on the ground, "Go on, go fight." I said to Hope.

"No, I'm not leaving you. It's dangerous." He knelt down and took my hand. "I'm not gonna let you get hurt even more."

"Hope, we all need you out there more than I need you here. You are more useful to them. Now go on, be a hero. _My _hero." With my free hand I pulled him into me. I kissed him, "Give 'em hell kiddo!"

Hope let go of my hand, "I'll be right back!" He got up and ran behind Lightning.

…

I didn't want to leave him, but Snow was right. It was a good thing I went out when I did because Rosch was fighting dirty. PSICOM soldiers were coming out of the elevators on the right. The right side came from lower levels where there were huge amounts of soldiers ready to fight. The left side was the escape route. It would take us to Leviathan Plaza.

I cast haste on Fang since she was closest to the soldiers. I cast haste on myself and charged into battle. These soldiers didn't have the crystal armor that the other ones had, so they were easy to fight. Except when they attacked. The bullets sparkled as they went passed me, one grazed my arm and I started to bleed, "Crystal bullets!" I called out to Fang.

"Alright, well this should take care of them!" She rushed in front the enemies and leaped into the air. She came crashing down, staff first, and created a small-scale explosion. The soldiers were, indeed, taken care of.

More soldiers came, this time they came out in crystal armor and began shooting as soon as the door opened. It was hard to dodge the bullets. I got hit by a couple, but nothing that a few cure spells couldn't fix. I looked to see how Light and the others were doing, and Rosch seemed to be almost finished. I could see some smoke coming from different parts of the machine, "That's all she can take sir!" I heard a voice call out.

"Fall back! PSICOM units, move in!" Rosch took off in the machine and left the five of us to fight a hoard of PSICOM soldiers. Most of them were in crystal, the ones that weren't in crystal had the crystal bullets.

"Looks like this should be fun!" Fang said.

I pulled out Alexander's Eidolith, "Come on Alexander!" I threw the crystal in the air and smashed it with my boomerang. When he had appeared I commanded him, "Take them out!" I couldn't let them get to Snow. I backed up so that way I could see around my giant Eidolon. I cast two watergas at them and then two thundagas. When the electricity hit the water it burst into flames. I cast a few aeros to make the flames grow bigger. If I kept this up we could get rid of them. "Vanille use water to make steam!" That's what she did.

A cloud of steam rose into the air, "Light, Vanille. Blizzaga on the steam!" I called to them. They listened. The steam froze into a solid slab of ice and it fell on top of the soldiers. With the ice sitting on top of them, I cast a few watergas to go under the ice. "Use blizzard on the water!" They listened again.

All the water froze and the soldiers couldn't move. "Alexander, gestalt mode!" My Eidolon took his gestalt form as a fortress and I proceeded to give him the command to use his Divine Judgment. I wanted to go over to Snow to make sure he was alright, but I had to make sure that things were fine here first. So I waited for the blast of energy to be over to make sure that the troop was taken care of.

I turned around and saw a soldier with crystal gun standing in front of Snow. I watched the man shoot him, but I couldn't see Snow's body. The man saw us watching and began to run. "Stop him!" I yelled and Fang cast a slow on him. His run matched my walk. I ran up to Snow to check on him to see the damage that had been done.

Three bullet wounds. One in his right shoulder, one in the stomach, and the third just to the left of the heart. I couldn't breathe. I knelt down beside him, "Snow, I need you to listen to me okay."

"Hmm." His eyes were barely open and his breathing was hardly worth the effort.

"Stay awake okay. Look at me and everything will be alright." I cast a curaja spell and it didn't work. Snow's eyes were closing, "Snow, come on. Stay awake, just a little longer. Vanille, give me your hand." I took her hand without taking my eyes off of Snow's. I drew as much power from her as I could and cast a curaja again. It didn't do anything. He was still bleeding. I started to panic, "I can't heal the wounds with the crystals in there."

I looked down at Snow and his eyelids were flickering open and shut, "Snow. Please, look at me. Stay awake!" My eyes burned and the tears began to flow. "Please Snow. Please!"

Snow tried his hardest to open his eyes and look at me, "It's alright kiddo, Just let your hero relax for a minute." He shut his eyes.

"Snow?! Snow?!" I shook him a little bit. He didn't respond. I shook him again. Nothing. I buried my face in my hands and cried. I had calmed down for just a second to look for the soldier. He hadn't gotten far. "Fang, come with me."

I stood up and the two of us walked over to the soldier. With every step we took, I became more and more angry. When we caught up to him, I had Fang grab a hold of him. I cast dispel on him so he would feel all of this in real time. "Give me the gun." I said calmly.

"I don't take orders from l'Cie!"

I stepped forward and pulled the helmet off his head and repeated myself, "Give me the gun."

"Screw off!" He spat.

The fact that he was all alone and still trying to fight made me even angrier. I punched him in the face as hard as I could, "When I said give me the gun I _fucking_ meant it." I punched him again and took the gun.

The soldier spit out a bloody tooth, "You know, I'm glad I got the chance to kill one of you." He laughed.

"You know, I'm glad that if the crystal bullet is still inside the body, it can't be healed." I smiled and pointed the gun at his face, but only to scare him. He closed his eyes and held his breath. "Hey Fang, this could get messy so you can let go of him." She did as I said and stepped to the side.

The soldier tried to turn but I cast a blizzard to freeze his feet. "Now don't try to run anymore, I don't plan on killing you. You took something important from me. So I'm going to take something important from you."

The soldier thought he had a sense of humor, "What, did I kill your boyfriend?"

"Yes, actually." I aimed the gun for his right leg and pulled the trigger. I watched as the crystal pierced the armor and went directly into his thigh. I looked to make sure it didn't go through the other side. It didn't. "So, would you like to keep your walking ability, or your talking ability?"

All the soldier could do was scream, "Talking? Alright, I'll let you keep it, but those legs? Gotta go." I pointed the gun at his left knee and pulled the trigger. I watched the crystal go straight into his knee and stay there. "You have fun trying to get away from the Pulse creatures." I threw the gun toward a Behemoth King off in the distance. I melted the ice and let him fall.

I turned around and Fang and I walked back to the group. Every step I took on the way back made the tears replace my anger. When we got back to the group, I collapsed by Snow and cried. I picked up one of his hands and checked for a sign of him holding on.

My fingers were greeted with a soft beating from his wrist. I put my ear to his chest and heard a faint heartbeat. Snow was still alive.

Now all he had to do was save him.

**Author's Note:** How was that? The next few weeks are going to be very busy, so I might not be able to post a chapter every week, but I hope you guys like what's going on so far. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

When I shut my eyes, I didn't expect to wake up. To be honest, I thought I was done for. I woke up in a bright white space. I turned around to look for something or someone, but it was all empty. "Hello?"

I felt a tap on my shoulders. I turned around and saw two tall beautiful women. They were dressed in blue and white and had markings on their faces, "Who are you?" I asked them, but for some reason I felt like I already knew them.

"Stiria and Nix." The woman pointed to herself and then to her sister. The Shiva sisters.

"I didn't know you guys were actually people- looking." I sounded stupid, but I couldn't think of how to describe them.

Nix smiled, "You always have a way with words Snow." She laughed. Her voice was softer than Stiria's and she was more sincere rather than her sister, who was serious. "This is what we look like inside the Eidolith crystal. The form we take outside the Eidolith must fit the times. We take the form of machines because most of the world is mechanical. This organic form is our spirit form."

"So am I dead?"

They both laughed, "No. We Eidolons are sent to our l'Cie keepers as a test, remember? We come to you as a reason for you to push on. We are here now, as a reason for you to push on. You cannot give up on your life. You must live and complete your focus." Stiria told me.

She was right, but Hope couldn't heal me so how was I going to live? And my focus was to destroy Cocoon, so wasn't I going to die anyways? "My focus is to destroy Cocoon."

Nix looked down, "Not quite."

"What do you mean?" Stiria looked at her sister.

"What she means is, is that not all six of your foci are to destroy Cocoon. And in fact, your focus isn't about Cocoon at all. It's to protect someone." Stiria looked at me like I was supposed to know what she was talking about.

As I stood and thought about what she said, the white began to change. My feet sank a little and I felt a breeze. I looked to my left and saw water. I looked the other way and saw the inn. Bodhum. I took a deep breath and smelled the air. It smelled like Hope. "I'm supposed to protect Hope?"

Nix nodded her head, "There's one more surprise. You remember learning about the Leavers? Well, we can do that, but for others."

I looked into the distance and saw a person standing on the small wooden pier. "We must go now Snow. You'll know when it's time to wake up." Stiria told me and they both backed up. They shimmered into tiny blue crystals and formed one: my Eidolith. I grabbed it and put it in my pocket. I looked at the pier and wondered who it could possibly be.

I walked down the sand and I could start to see who it was more and more. It was a girl, pink hair, red skirt and a white blouse, "Serah?" I reached the pier.

"Snow? Is it really you?" She didn't look too happy, but she smiled anyways.

This was one hell of a surprise, "Yeah, it is. So, how's crystal stasis?" I did not want to talk to her, or see her. The worst part of all this, was that it was real. I couldn't escape this.

"It's alright, I mean I sleep and dream about things, but lately I've been getting woken up and brought here." She looked up at the sky, while I looked down at the water. Did Hope ever wake her up? "It's funny though, whenever I come here awake, I am the only one besides the person that brought me here. I thought to myself, _Here? Of all places? Why?_. But I figured it out." She looked back at me while I looked out into the waves.

"Why do you keep getting brought here?" I looked at her.

She pointed to the vestige a little ways off, "This is where it all began. This Bodhum already happened, the vestige was take from here and brought along with the Purge. This Bodhum was where I got branded, and where all of you guys had been in one spot, but never knew. Where you proposed to me during those fireworks. This place is common ground for everyone that is apart of the Purge, l'Cie and the fal'Cie prophecies. Being in the crystal stasis, awake, I have the time to think about things. And when I actually fall asleep, I dream about things that have already happened, but through another's eyes."

I was confused, why would we be brought to where it all began if we can't start over? "Prophecies? I thought there was only one."

"That's what I thought too, but there are more. I'm not sure what the others are, but I know that after Ragnarok destroys Cocoon, there is something to do with a guardian and something called a Leaver." _Great, just great. The prophecy is about Hope and I. _"Does any of that mean anything, to you?"

I had to pretend like I didn't know anything, because I didn't want to have to explain why and how I knew. "No. I've never heard of a Leaver before."

I didn't want to keep talking about this, and I think Serah knew because she started asking about Pulse and other things like that. I answered them and described Pulse to her and assured her that Pulse was not 'The Hell Below' that everyone had made it out to be. "On Pulse, you don't really live too much. You survive."

"Oh. Well how has Light been surviving?" She looked concerned for second, but then kind of smiled.

I sat down and took my boots and socks off. I stuck my feet in the water, "She's good, but-"

"He makes you happy, doesn't he?" Serah sat down next to me and I was stunned.

She struck me stupid, I couldn't think, "Wha- What?"

"Well, you never put your feet in the water with me. Remember how I would come out here just for that, and you would just stand behind me?" I never gave that too much thought, but she was right.

"Why do you say 'he'?" I wanted to know how she knew.

She looked down into the water, "Because the first person to wake me up was a boy named Hope. He told me that you weren't staying with me because you were with him." Out of the corner of my eye is saw her wipe a tear from her face, "I know people move on and I understand. If he makes you happy and you love him with all your heart, then I'm happy for you and want nothing but the best for you and him."

I looked at her, "It's true that I am with him now, but Serah-" I was starting to get get pissed at myself for how often I was crying, but I started crying yet again, "You were the first person I ever loved. I will never forget that, or you. And all that's really left for me to say is, I'm sorry." It was hard for me to tell her, but I knew that either I tell her now or wait until I see her out of crystal stasis again.

"Snow, don't apologize. The only thing I ask is that you love him and keep him close. Don't ever let him walk alone. Treat him as if every moment could be the last you ever spend with him. Treat him like you treated me, but better. Love him stronger and kinder. Anyone that can tell me that they are with my fiancée, without bragging or being spiteful, deserves all of your love and friendship."

_How could she be so accepting about this? _"Thank you, Serah. I'm going to continue to fight to get you out."

"I know, but now, just save me because I'm your friend." Serah smiled and stood up.

I pulled my feet out of the water and shook them off, "You betcha!" I stood up and hugged her. When I let go, I put my socks and boots back on, "You wanna walk down the beach with me?" Serah loved walking down the beach. I let her walk on my right because she loved the mist when the waves crashed on the shore. It was great that we could just walk and not say anything because we already knew that nothing needed to be said. It made me think of Hope, because he always said what needed to be said so that way we didn't need to talk. Just feel.

We walked for a few minutes in quiet before Serah asked, "So what's Hope like?"

"Really? You wanna hear about Hope?" I looked at her and laughed.

"Absolutely!" She smiled.

I didn't really know where to start so I just starting talking, "He's shy at first, but when you get to know him he opens up. He is a sweet person; he will do just about anything to help his friends or family. He uses magic to fight. He is the best cook out of the group. He smells like the breeze here in Bodhum. He likes to sleep in and doesn't like noise when he first wakes up. His sides are ticklish-" I stopped talking because I was just rambling now.

Serah looked at me and laughed, "Did you talk about me like that? Jeez!" We kept walking down the beach for a few more minutes and I started to hear voices off in the distance.

"Do you hear that?" I asked.

She looked around, "Hear what?"

"Voices."

She shook her head, "I guess that means it's time for you to go?"

"I guess so." I turned to Serah and gave her a hug, "I'll see you later then?"

She smiled, "Yep!"

I let go of her and closed my eyes.

When I opened them, I was sitting on the ground against a car with everyone standing around me. I looked down and saw that my leg was fine. I looked inside my shirt and saw that where I was shot, there was nothing. "It worked!" Fang said, "I thought the Life spell was too powerful for us. Welcome back!" She held out a hand and I took it. She pulled me to my feet and I got light headed. I leaned back up against the car.

"Where's Hope? I have to talk to him." I needed to tell him what happened, "By the way, who cast the spell?"

Vanille put her hands on her hips, "Who do you think?" She smiled. She looked a little tired and so did Lightning.

"Are you and Light alright?" I asked.

…

_Before..._

Snow was alive, barely, but alive! "Guys, he's alive! Lightning I need your help. _We_ need your help." We had to try. I knew he was holding on because he was waiting for help.

Lightning stood there in fear while Vanille jumped up, ready to help. "You heard him Lightning!" She shook her out of whatever daze she was in, "We need you!"

She took a deep breath and took Vanille's hand, "Let's do this!" The sound of her voice told me that she was ready. It was the tone of her voice when she said things like this, which gave me courage the entire journey. I knew that this would work.

I took Vanille's open hand and began to draw energy from the two of them. I forced healing energy into Snow. There was a bright blue flash. When it was gone I looked to see if it worked. Nothing. "Again!" Fang commanded, "Draw more energy this time!"

I did as she said. I took more energy from them than before and tried to use more of mine too. I sent the blast into Snow. There was an even brighter flash. The air had cooled around us and instead of being as humid as it was today, the water in the seemed to level out and it became comfortable, breathable. I looked at Snow again. Nothing, again. "Cast the spell through your heart and not your brand."

I closed my eyes and concentrated. I pulled energy from the girls linked to me and I felt Vanille's hand loosen in mine, "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Keep going!" Vanille said shyly. I resumed my concentration and pulled more energy from them. I began to pull it all to my center. I kept drawing more and more energy from Vanille and Lightning. I heard Vanille whimper, but I knew that if I stopped I would lose all the power I had. I felt an hand squeeze my arm.

"It's okay to let go Vanille, I'll take it from here." I heard Light say as I concentrated the energy in my center. Vanille let go of my hand and Lightning took my hand. "Hope, take as much as you can from me. Help Snow."

I listened to her and felt her push energy into me. It was strong and I took all of it. My head started to hurt and I felt my nose start to bleed. I had to cast it now. I couldn't hold on to all of this much longer. I opened my eyes and saw that my body was glowing white. I knew that the third time would be the charm. I took my hand from Light, who was barely holding on, and held them both over Snow's body. I only thought of love and light. Usually my brand glows when I cast a spell, but this time it didn't.

I forced all the energy into Snow. I felt it all rush out in an instant. My head stopped hurting. I looked to see Snow's body had been turned into just a silhouette of white. When it was finally all out and I knew it could stop, I felt sick. I ran around the other side of the car and threw up. I sat down and closed my eyes. "Tell me if he's alright." I started to fall asleep.

XXX

It was bad enough that Snow almost died, but tapping into magic that powerful could've killed Vanille, Hope and Lightning. The brand of the l'Cie is made to express magic of destruction, not for protection and healing. Expressing magic through the heart can be used for any means imaginable, but it takes much more power, pure power. It can literally drain the life from those who use too much at once.

-Fang

I guess I was just jealous before, but now things are different. Watching Hope seek his vengeance without killing the man proved to me that he loves Snow. I'm sure we all had our doubts about their relationship, but I can tell none of us did after this. It's funny how someone so young and innocent can grow years in just a few weeks. He really does live up to his name. He gives all of us hope and courage.

I may joke that Snow is too stubborn to die, but in the end he truly isn't. He lives for Hope and that's why he didn't die. His love kept him going. And when I said I was jealous before, I was really only jealous that someone was carrying on just for them and vice-versa. Snow is an idiot, but he loves a lot and it's pure. I knew that I had to help. In the back of my mind always admired Snow for not letting obstacles get in the way of the final goal. He always over looked it all because he knew he could get passed it. When I took Vanille's hand I knew that I wanted to save him. Even though I started to feel weak, I gave Hope all the energy I could.

Now, I can say that we saved him.

-Lightning

Standing on the sidelines watching this whole thing was weird. I never really believed in magic like this, but I do now! If there is one thing I learned on this journey, it's that love is all that matters. Whether it be love of a child, friend, family member or significant other. When you're doing something that involves love it will all work out. On Cocoon you didn't really see two guys together, but when you did, they were a lot better off than us regular people. Seeing Hope and Snow together was a shock at first, but now I don't care. If they're happy together then that's okay with me!

-Sazh

If you give up before you even tried anything, you never did anything at all. Unless you've tried everything and gave it your all, then there is no reason to give up. Back on Pulse Fang told me- "We have a new family now. We stick together, you hear me?"- And protecting your family is just what you do. Snow was hanging on by a thread and I knew that if we worked together we would save him. It took almost all I had to hold on to Hope's hand and let him draw the energy from me. But I couldn't let go, Snow was a part of our family. A crazy family, but we are there for each other just the same.

We all live our lives wondering '_What's next?_'. Some of us can't see life without someone else. When something happens to a person we can't live without, the future stops coming and there are only two things we can do. Do everything in our power to save that person, or run from the problem. When Hope used all his energy to heal Snow, I knew that his future was not about to stop.

-Vanille

**Author's Note: **Chapter six is under way, but might take longer than usual. Trying to move and prepare for school in September. I hope you guys are enjoying the journey so far, there is much more to come! Let me know what you guys are thinking, I love the feedback!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

I looked at Vanille and Lightning and they looked exhausted, "Yeah we're fine, we've just been waiting for you to come around!" Vanille explained, "And Hope is around the other side, I checked on him a minute ago and he was asleep."

I walked around to see Hope, in fact, asleep against the car. I sat down next to him and made sure to bump him. I saw the blood above his lip when he moved his head and opened his eyes. "Hey there!" I smiled and he did too.

"You're alright!" Hope said weakly and leaned up against me. I put my arm around his small body and pulled him in, "You know, for a second I thought I lost you." I heard the sadness in his voice and I heard his breathing change. He started to cry. He buried his head in my chest and I held him as close as I could, "Please don't ever leave me Snow!" I lifted him onto my lap and let him cry.

I rubbed his back, "It's alright Hope. I'm here and I'm not going anywhere. Look at me." Hope lifted his face so I could see him. I wiped a tear from his cheek, "I'm not going anywhere, I promise." I pulled him back into me and kissed the top of his head.

I looked to where the battlefield was and saw a huge slab of ice, "Hope, did you do that?"

I heard a sniffle and he turned his head to see what I was looking at, "The ice? Yeah, with help from Light and Vanille."

"Cool!" We laughed, "Alright, do you think we can leave now?" I looked around to the bumper, where everyone but Sazh, was crowded around. Lightning and Vanille still looked really tired, but I knew we had to get going eventually. I mean we were all tired, but we were already so close to Orphan. Why slow down now?

Sazh walked to the hood of the car where he could see the road below. He shrugged his shoulders, "Well guys, if we play it safe then we get through without having to fight anything." He walked back around the car in front of all of us, "The roads are destroyed, so there really is only one way to get through."

"Well, it's settled! Let's get out of here!" Fang said walking to the front. "We are going to save Cocoon and that's that!"

Hope stood up, and I got up too. I was excited to finally finish this journey and be able to start a new one. I was trying to not think about my actual focus and just think about my life with Hope. We started walking toward the elevators. There were three small ones- two in each. We separated, Light and Sazh, Fang and Vanille, and Hope and I. Now, I never liked elevators, in fact, I'm afraid of them. When I was a little kid I got stuck in one in the middle of the night. I was in there for a couple of hours before I got out. I was in there alone, so I had no one to comfort me.

We got in and closed the door. It started down the shaft and Hope grabbed on to me really tight. I put my arms around him, "You scared babe?"

"I don't know why I am all of a sudden. I used to ride elevators all the time. But right now, I'm just scared it's going to get stuck." Hope hadn't held onto me this tight since he woke up from that nightmare on Pulse. "I know you're scared too Snow."

I looked down, confused, "How do you know I'm scared?"

"I don't know. I felt scared as soon as you stepped into the elevator. I don't know. You probably think I'm crazy." Hope turned around to make sure that I couldn't see his face.

I put my hands on his shoulders and turned him around, "There's those red cheeks again!" I smiled and he smiled back. It was the moments like these that made me wonder why I let Hope stop back in Oerba, "I am afraid of elevators, when I was little I got stuck in one by myself. It was dark outside and there was a storm rolling in, so I had to sit in the elevator for hours listening to thunder. You're not crazy Hope, you're right.

"I'm sorry Snow, I didn't know. I just felt it." The door opened and we could finally get out. From this street, we could get to Leviathan Plaza and then finally to Eden Hall. Hope took my hand and wove his fingers between mine. "You're not scared anymore, are you?" Hope asked shyly.

I shook my head, "Nope." I smiled at him and his face got red, "Hope, how come you still get red?" I wasn't asking him to be mean or anything, I was just curious.

He looked away, "I don't know."

"Hope, it's not a bad thing, I promise!" I couldn't help but smile, because his face only became redder. He kept looking the opposite way of me, though. "Did I make you upset?" I started to feel bad now, I shouldn't have said anything.

"Don't feel bad Snow." He squeezed my hand and looked at me, "I can tell you feel bad, but don't. I get red because I still can't wrap my head around the fact that you and I are together. You would be one of the guys that is never seen without a gorgeous woman, or guy for that matter. I mean, back on Cocoon I had friends, but I wasn't very cool. Everyone just knew me as the kid with the rich dad. I never had girlfriends or boyfriends or anything like that. The fact that you want me is so crazy to me. I love you Snow, but sometimes I get weird when you tell me things about myself."

I squeezed his hand back, "I'm sorry if I make you feel weird, but I can't help it Hope. You are so beautiful to me, and saying little things like this is my way of telling you. As well as telling you directly that you are the most beautiful person I have ever met on the inside and out."

Hope smiled as wide as he could.

"Who knew you were such a charmer." I turned around as fast as I could to see Fang and everyone else listening to us. "Hey now, don't get mad. I'm not making fun of you; I'm just letting you know that Hope is one lucky guy."

Hope squeezed my hand, "Snow, relax." He whispered to me. It was starting to freak me out how he knew what I was feeling. "Fang is serious, I can tell."

I sighed, "Alright, let's get going." I was beginning to wonder about Hope, I wanted to know how he knew what I was feeling and how he knew about Fang. Could he do that, now that he is a Leaver? We set off down the road, we were all pretty quiet. At this point I guessed that we were all thinking about the same thing; saving Cocoon. We all got to the first break in the road and had to jump down to get to the rest of the road. I helped Hope since I knew he didn't like to jump down, ever since Palumpolum.

We started down the next piece of road when Hope stopped, "Do we have any water?" At the same time, I heard Sazh say it too. This was beyond coincidence; Hope was definitely feeling what we were feeling.

Vanille pulled out a canteen from behind her animal fur skirt. "Who's first?" She held it out to Sazh, "You drink first. Hope was the one that got sick." She giggled.

Sazh took the canteen and drank. He tossed it to Hope and he drank. Hope tossed it back to Vanille and we began jumping down again. We turned the corner only to be stopped by a Behemoth King.

Fang, Lightning and Vanille ran to the front and began the battle. I stood in front of Hope to guard him from anything like a Heave attack. I watched Light run around back and start attacking. She swung about four times before I felt the weight on my trench coat.

…

When the Behemoth King came at us, instead feeling ready for the battle, I was terrified. It wasn't my fear though, it was the beast's. Lightning started slashing at the back of the Behemoth and I felt every hit. Three strikes on my back and the fourth on my legs. My legs gave out and I grabbed onto Snow's trench coat. Fang Challenged it and I suddenly felt like attacking her.

I picked myself up and walked toward her. Lightning started attacking again, along with Vanille. I wanted to punch Fang in the face, but I didn't know why. It felt like my head was trying to battle different sets of emotions, and the invading ones were winning. Even though I felt every hit, I still wanted to hurt Fang.

I felt Snow grab me, "What the hell are you doing? First thing you're on the ground and now you're about to go into battle? Wait here!" I felt his anger and concern, I felt the beast's fear and rage, and I felt Fang's rush of adrenaline. Alongside those emotions, I felt my own. At the same time, though, I couldn't figure out which one was mine versus all the others'.

My head began to pound. It was overwhelming. Was there something wrong with me? In the back of my mind I could feel something startling, dangerous and ready to kill. I knew exactly what kind of thing these emotions would come from; the military. It was getting stronger, as well as the Behemoth's rage.

As I felt every blow of Lightning's blade and Vanille's magic, I got angrier. My head felt like it was about to explode and then the Behemoth stood up on its hind legs and removed the saw-blade from its back. I broke away from Snow and began to run. As I ran toward Fang, I could feel my head fill with the intent to kill her, then to kill everyone else. I could see the soldiers coming down the road. I could feel their hatred. I also started to feel everyone else's emotions too.

I pulled out my boomerang to swing at Fang, when I fell to my knees. The pain in my head was unbearable, my eyes went blurry and my ears started to ring. I tried so hard not to cry, but it only made the pain worse. I let the tears run down my face as I covered my ears.

I felt two hands on my back and his panic shot up my spine. "Don't touch me! Please! It hurts too much." His touch sent spikes straight into my head, "I can feel them. I can feel everyone!" I sobbed. I couldn't help it; the pain was nothing I had ever felt before.

"Hope, look at me-" Snow's words were so heavy I cried out.

"Make it stop! Make it stop!" I cried out to anyone that could help. My chest started to get hot. The pain still kept up. The ground began to shake and just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. I couldn't breathe, the heat was spreading through my body and when it reached my finger tips, I exploded. My vision went white and I couldn't hear anything.

In an instant, all the pain I was feeling and all the emotions inside my head were gone. When I opened my eyes to see that the light was gone, so were the soldiers and the Behemoth King. The only emotion I could feel was love. It was mine. The kind of love where you'd end the world for someone, just to protect them, it was this love that kept everyone alive, so I found out.

"Wow Hope! That was incredible! How did you do that?" Vanille cheered.

I honestly didn't know. Snow knelt down and wrapped his arms around me, "Is it okay now? Does it hurt?" He rubbed circles on my back with a soothing hand. I felt him and his emotions, but they seemed tolerable and not dominating.

Fang stepped toward us, "Does what hurt?"

"The emotions everyone was feeling." Snow said for me, "He could feel all of you guys, and me. He felt the monster." Fang looked at me.

"Is it true? You could feel all of the emotions?" I nodded, her words didn't hold any weight, but I could tell she was a little worried.

I stood up from Snow, "Yeah and there were soldiers too. They were coming to kill us; I was going to kill you Fang. I didn't want to, but the emotions of the Behemoth and the soldiers were overwhelming." I looked down. I felt Fang, as well as everyone else, have a 'Oh man!' moment. I felt terrible.

"Hey kid, don't worry about it. You didn't and that's all that matters." Fang put her hand on my shoulder and I looked at her, "Seriously, it's alright." She was being sincere.

Light walked over to me, "Hope, you said you can feel emotions now? What am I feeling?"

"Impatience." She looked at me funny, "You're impatient and want to keep going."

She put her hands on her hips, "That's not what I was thinking."

Vanille and Sazh walked over, and I was thankful for it because Vanille was in a really good mood, "Lightning, there's a difference between telepathy and empathy. He can only feel your emotions, not your thoughts." She looked at me, "And remember on the airship when Fang told you that one of your parents was lying about where they were from? Well, it's true." She looked down.

"So what does this mean? I'm a Leaver and I can feel people's emotions? Is there something wrong with me?"

Fang laughed, "No. You are an empath as well. Legend has it that 'when two worlds have one life to bear, two worlds of feeling, with him, will share' or something like that." When Fang said this, I felt a sense of alarm.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up, "Is someone nervous?" Everyone shook their heads. Then I felt someone lying, "Snow?"

…

I guess I knew that in the back of my mind that I would have to tell Hope. I wanted to wait though; I didn't want him to worry about anything. "Well, when I went to sleep, I woke up in Bodhum. You know how you're a Leaver?" I turned to face him better and he nodded, "Well I saw my Eidolons there and they told me that they could do that for others."

"And?" Hope said. He crossed his arms and I knew that I had to tell him what I knew.

I broke eye contact, "I saw Serah." I heard Light's breath get caught in her throat, "I told her about us and she told me she knew. She told me that her mind had been woken up and brought to Bodhum before so she had time to think and to find things out. She told me about a prophecy about a Leaver, but that she really didn't know any details. She only found out that the prophecy of Ragnarok wasn't the only one that was going to happen." If I told him what he needed to know, that wasn't lying right? I'll tell him the rest in private.

"How did Serah_ already know_?" Lightning asked.

Hope looked at her, "Because the first time I Left, I saw her and told her." I looked at him and was surprised.

"Hope, you never told me about that." I didn't know whether to be mad or not. I mean I didn't tell him about when I saw her, but in the past twenty minutes there really wasn't a 'by the way' moment. There was also the fact that I knew about it anyway, but that was beside the point.

He turned to me and he looked guilty, "I know you're mad at me, but I had to tell her." He was only half right about being mad at him. I was mad at the whole situation.

"Alright people, maybe it's time we get going. No need to get mad at each other." Sazh butted in to try to end all this. It worked because we did begin walking again. We did everything we could not to be spotted and have to waste time and energy on the guards and feral creatures. After a few minutes, I felt Hope's small, cool hand slip into mine. When he took my hand I wasn't mad anymore. I couldn't be. At the end of the day I had Hope and nothing else mattered.

**Author's Note: **Next chapter is going to be a great surprise which I hope you guys like! Although I love Snow and Hope, Fang is my favorite and I wanted to do something with her and Vanille. Thank you guys so much for reading this! You have no idea how much it means that you actually enjoy the story!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

The city of Eden was amazing, well, what was left of it anyways. It was sort of ironic how the feral creatures of Pulse were brought here. It seemed like the hell everyone feared on Cocoon was brought to their door step. All the while, the six of us were essentially the ones who started all of this.

It was hard to understand that Vanille and I were tasked with destroying the place. What was even harder to wrap my head around, was that Hope is the key to it all. On Pulse, schools taught us everything we needed to know and more; we were taught mathematics, writing and the sciences. We also learned our history, legends and all things mystical. Our people lived through culture and tradition, not routine and busy-work.

On Cocoon, they are taught the things that are required of them to find a job to help cities grow and technology become more efficient. The children aren't taught magic and how to control it, but those who live on Cocoon cannot posses magic unless their fal'Cie make them l'Cie. Sure, the people learned of the War of Transgression, and of Orphan and Ragnarok, but Hope proved to me that he didn't know how to handle all of this.

Walking through the streets and seeing the chaos just made me think of how no one saw this coming. Saw _us_ coming. "Hey Hope." I turned around to see him holding Snow's hand. He looked at me, "Come here, I've got to talk to you for a minute, alone."

When he caught up to me, we split from the others but walked parallel to them. "What's up Fang?"

"Alright, so you know how you blew up just a minute ago? Do you know what that was?" He looked up to me and shook his head, "It's called an Empathic Burst. When you have too many emotions inside your head and it's overwhelming, those who are powerful enough can release it in a wave of energy that literally destroys those that the emotions come from. How you not only survived, but spared the rest of us is amazing."

I looked to see what his reaction was and he looked nervous, "What if I had no idea what I was doing? I didn't anyways, but after the burst the only thing I felt was love, do you know what that means?" He fidgeted with his fingers.

"That's your 'shield'. With practice, you can use it to protect yourself from the others around you and only let in the emotions you choose." Sometimes, I wondered when I was going to ask questions and receive the answers. I heard some footsteps headed toward the two of us.

Vanille. It's a good thing she came over, she knew how to help Hope calm down and not stress so much.

…

"Hope, did you know that you can also 'push' emotions on to people?" I felt sort bad for Hope; he was the youngest one, and the most innocent, out of all of us and he had to be the one with all of this power. "We can show you how, if you want."

"Sure." He tried to look excited, but I knew he didn't really want to.

"Don't worry Hope! It'll be fun!" I tried so hard to reassure him, "Alright, now pick an emotion. Do a happy one!" I giggled because this sort of thing was always exciting!

"Alright."

"Now make yourself feel it." Fang chimed in with direction, "When you're ready, choose someone and give it to them. Give it all to them until you just feel 'you' again." Fang and I always did teach people at the same time. It was funny because we never meant to, it just happened that way.

I guess I should've known who he would pick to make happy, because while I was walking with everyone, Snow was sort of upset. He told me that he thought Hope was afraid to tell him things. He felt like he did something wrong. I told him that everything was going to be fine. It takes a while to get into the rhythm of a relationship, making sure you don't keep things from each other, be together and still have boundaries. Snow had to understand that even though they were a couple, Hope was still just fourteen years old. I think Hope knew, because Snow began to walk over. He had this big goofy smile on his face and I couldn't help but laugh!

He scooped Hope up in a big hug and kissed him. Hope laughed and hugged him back. Snow set him back on the ground, "I love you." That was all he said and began to walk with us. They way that those two loved each other was incredible. In spite of everything that's been going on around them, they manage to love each other more and more every day. If you ask me, these two were meant to be together.

When I was little, I was told a story about the Leaver and the Guardian. It was a beautiful story about how a young Leaver would grow and discover their true power. All the while, the Guardian never left their side. They fought side by side until the very end. However, there was a dark side to the story; when the Leaver unlocked their true potential, the key to Ragnarok would be released. The first time Fang turned into Ragnarok, the monster was incomplete. The prophecy alongside this one, tells the story that two 'sisters' one of the family Yun and the other Dia of Oerba. Lyndzei's nest. Together these two would bring the fall of Cocoon in the form of Ragnarok. All of these stories came from old scrolls, said to be from the progenitors of human life on Pulse. The only way for Ragnarok to be whole, is when two worlds meet to create life. That was Hope, and I didn't know if Fang knew it yet, but I did.

Even though we are so close to the end, I knew that I had to smile through it. "So you guys, have you done 'it' yet?" I was curious, because back in Oerba I told Hope about things and never found out if they did do anything. I laughed at Snow's reaction. "So you did?"

Hope looked at me with a red face, "No, not yet."

…

I'm glad Vanille wasn't afraid to ask questions like these, because quite frankly I wanted to know if the two had sex yet as well. "Hope, it's nothing to be embarrassed about. Besides, if your man over here wants it bad enough, he's got hands." I laughed and so did Hope and Vanille. Snow looked at me with fire in his eyes, "Lighten up big guy! It's only a joke." I told him calmly and simply. They were going to do things on their own time and only theirs, I knew that.

These two, they have been through trial after trial. Surviving this far together, dealing with Lightning, near death twice, Hope's leaving and empathy. Those may be few in number, but their duration is hell. On top of that, I know Snow knows about Hope being the 'key' and him being his Guardian. I just hope that after this is all done, those guys are alright, that they live on. Vanille and I know of our fate and we are okay with it, we've known of our fate years before our crystal stasis.

"So, you wanna try it again? I want you to practice pushing emotions so that way you can learn to cope better with people's feelings invading your mind. There's some soldiers up there, try making them fall asleep." He had to do it; he had to learn to control this power because the power of empathy can be deadly to the wielder.

"Fang, there's three of them." Hope was trying to get out of it and I wasn't about to let that happen.

"Hope, babe, you can do it. Like Fang said, you've gotta learn." It was good to see he was on my side with this.

He closed his eyes and I watched him concentrate for a minute. I looked down the road and watched all three soldiers fall to the ground asleep. "Well I'll be! Good job!" I was surprised at how quick he did that, "You wanna know something?"

Hope smiled, "Sure."

"When you're ever in an emergency and need to truly kill something or someone, pull all the emotions from anything and everything as far as your mind will reach and push it into it. I suggest forming a ball of energy and pulling it all into that so you don't feel any of it." Snow looked at me funny.

"Don't go turning him into some psycho." We all laughed.

From the corner of my eye, I watched Lightning and Sazh crossing the road to walk with us. Sazh scratched his head, "So what happened to those guys? Are they dead?" Vanille laughed hearing this.

"Nope, Hope put them to sleep!"

Sazh raised his eyebrows and nodded his head in understanding and we all walked together again. We walked down the road and saw people running in our direction. Hope stopped walking, "Hey, you alright?" He looked terrified.

"There's something coming, all of these people are scared of it." Then I felt the vibrations. Something big _was_ coming.

Vanille pointed and shouted, "Adamanchelid!"

"There's no way around it! We have to fight!" Lightning said as she charged toward it. I followed and so did Vanille. We ran into battle and I started out with a defensive stance.

"You lookin at me?" I challenged it so it would target me. "Attack the legs Light!" I called out to her. Vanille began casting spells on the giant tortoise and Light attacked with her blade. The monster lifted a leg and stomped, knocking the three of us down. Vanille and Light sent healing spells out and they kept up with the attacking. I started to Entrench it and it stomped again. I ran up and began to attack its leg.

It lifted its foot over my head and began to push it down. "No!" Vanille shouted and I felt something hit my back knocking me out of the way. I got up as fast as I could to see what it was, but then I saw Vanille cast a spell. Above me I saw the Adamanchelid start to dissolve. Its skin turned black and began ash. It was turning to dust. I ran back to Vanille.

"What did you do?" It was weird seeing this happen because I didn't know she could do something like that.

Vanille looked sort of guilty, "That's the second time I've cast that spell, Death. I used it on a soldier just after you started to fight Rosch. I could never do it before then." I saw tears in her eyes and I pulled her close.

"Vanille, it's alright. It's do or die, and either way, you saved me. You can cast that spell for a reason, you hear me?" She cried and hugged me.

She whispered in my ear, "But Fang, don't you see, when Hope's powers grew, to blast away the crystal on those soldiers, so did ours'. Hope is the key to Ragnarok." Then it hit me, my highwind was something I couldn't do before. I was suddenly more powerful now that Hope had discovered his new power. I knew he was the key before, but I didn't know that the more powerful he got, the more powerful Vanille and I got.

"Alright, well we need to keep moving. Just don't worry about that spell, alright?" I let her go and we all began walking again. We reached Siren Park pretty quickly after that, Hope practiced his new trick and put all the soldiers to sleep while the rest of us fought of the feral enemies. We made it through the door way and things got a little bumpy.

"Don't move l'Cie!" Soldiers, it was great, just great. So close and we got ambushed. Soldiers came around and grabbed each one of us. I tried to fight it, but the bastard hit the side of my head and I was out.

…

"Fang!" I couldn't believe this was happening; did we really get this far without ever even having a chance to see the end?

I heard a weird noise, like an engine getting closer. It was an armored truck. It pulled up in front of us and the back opened up. They began to drag us up the ramp into the back. Snow broke away and punched the soldier. He began to fight the others and was winning. He had about six of them on the ground and then one came up behind him with some sort of shocking device and stuck him in the back with it. He fell to the floor.

The door closed and the six of us were stuck in the back of a truck with crystal-armored soldiers. There was no way we could fight our way out of it this time. Last time we tried, it took Hope's burst to stop them. We started moving and Fang woke up, "What the hell is going on?"

"Shut up!" The soldiers punched Fang, "No talking!"

Fang glared back at him and I really hoped that she wouldn't say anything again. I looked straight ahead to see Hope with his eyes shut and head up against the wall. It was quiet for a bit and I saw Hope's head slump down. He was sleeping. I wondered if he was trying to Leave. It was quiet for a few more minutes before the guard next to Hope began to shake.

The man fell to the floor screaming and so did the other guards. They were all shaking and screaming. "Let us go, now!" I heard Hope say quietly.

"No!" One of the soldiers managed to scream out, "We're bringing you to your execution!" A few seconds after he said this, all of the men on the floor stopped shaking and stopped screaming, they were out of breath. Hope woke up and the guards began to stand up one by one. I just looked at him horrified.

"You are going to stop this truck now!" Hope's eyes went white and glowed with light. I had never seen him this way. "I know what you've done to people. You men were the ones that helped with the Purge! It's time for you to know just how much pain you've brought to people."

One of the men laughed, "Oh yeah, what are you gonna do?" Hope turned his head toward the guard and in an instant he was ripping off his helmet gasping for air. All of them had their helmets off within seconds and they were all holding their ears begging for it to stop.

"Hope, stop it! You're going to kill them!" I shouted at him.

The glowing of Hope's eyes flickered for a second, "That's the point; they have to feel all the pain they brought to others!"

"That's not your responsibility! They will pay for it later; you have to stop, now!" I walked over to him and slapped him as hard as I could. His eyes returned to normal and I just fell to my knees and started crying. I had never seen anything so horrible, and from Hope. "Why would you do something like that?"

"Do what? What's going on?" He looked around like he was confused. That scared me even more.

Snow moved closer to him, "The guards passed out because of you. You were going to kill them if you kept going." Hope looked down at them and his eyes got wide.

"I did this? I only tried leaving to make them let us go. I don't remember doing this." He looked at his hands, "What good is having this power, if this is the result? The only thing I felt when I woke up was anger."

"That's why you don't remember, you're picking up what the soldiers were feeling; anger, hate." Fang told him. I had finally calmed down enough to stand back up.

I put my hands on his shoulders, "Remember your shield, Hope. Love. The magic you posses is far beyond any power we've ever seen. You can never lose control, because if you do, then darkness can take over." He looked at me, "If you feel yourself losing control, just stop it. Just focus on love." It was scary to think that Hope came close to killing these men. Sure, they might've deserved punishment, but not by his hand.

XXX

Let life run its course, for in the end everything must be at peace. For l'Cie, it's crystal stasis or becoming Cei'th and then to stone. We all live in a fool's paradise, for we never know when the consequences of our actions will catch up to us. Gaining power is a treasure for those who can keep it safe. Power that grows in the wrong direction sews the seeds of chaos and regret.

Our decisions are never solely based on what impact it has on everything. Sometimes, I wonder what would've happened if Ragnarok would've been complete, the first time around. That way, not as many people would have to lose their lives.

XXX

After being loaded onto the back of the truck, I knew I had to do something. I remember Fang saying that I could eventually control my leaving so I concentrated on going to a place that wasn't in my head or anybody else's'. When I fell asleep, I was able to bring myself to a place where I could see everyone around me. I reached out to touch Snow's hand, but he didn't do anything. The soldiers were there too and I cast a thundara spell on the one that brought me into the truck. I held the electricity and told him to let us go and sent the current through the other guards too. They were all trying to fight it, so I put more force into the shock.

When the guard said we were being taken to our execution, I lost all concentration and woke up. When I came back I was in sort of a trance or something because I was aware of my actions, but it was something deeper than my consciousness taking control. I closed my eyes to try and take myself back, but I blacked out.

I opened my eyes to a stinging on my cheek and Vanille crying in front of me. The guards were knocked out. Vanille and Snow told me that I did that to them and that I was going to kill them. Why couldn't have Lightning or Fang have gotten this power? I was fine with the Leaving, but this empathy thing, I didn't want it. Everyone keeps telling me I have to control it and focus on my shield, but they don't know what it feels like. The past hour or two have been so draining and all I want to do is go to sleep. Everyone's words weigh so much inside my head and they all stick.

Lightning stood up and looked out of the window on the door, "We aren't moving anymore." She walked to the other side to see into the driver's seat, "The driver's gone too."

"How are we getting out of here?" Snow asked.

Sazh bent down to pick something up, "I think this is how." He plugged a little card-key into a slot on the wall and the hatch opened up. "Well, good thing that's over! Let's get out of here!" We weren't taken very far by the looks of it, just to the next door. I grabbed Snow's hand and held on tight.

"What's wrong kiddo?" Snow looked at me and I moved closer to him.

I rested my head against his arm, "I don't know. I just want to be close to you right now, that's all." What I really wanted was for him to sweep me up and kiss me and tell me everything was going to be okay.

He sighed and I knew that by the sound of it, he knew I was lying. We tried the door, but nothing happened. Why would it have been locked, to keep us out, or something in? Before I could think too long about it, I felt a rush of adrenaline and heard a loud noise coming toward us. It sounded like engines.

The hydraulics sounded and the door began to lift. We saw the face, the torso and finally the opening below the body begin to open. When the door was fully opened, people on aerobikes flew through the opening. I was pretty sure I'd seen them before. They were all waving and smiling, "Hey Snow!" I could tell that they meant well and were good people.

"Hey guys!" Snow waved back and the bikes lowered to the ground. When they got off the bikes and I could actually see their faces, I remembered who they were; NORA.

The tall guy that had muscle was the first to walk over, "I see you're holding a new hand?" I immediately felt embarrassed.

…

Seeing everyone come through the gate was awesome, but when Gadot pointed out me holding Hope's hand I knew this wouldn't be the last time I explained our relationship to someone. Hope squeezed my hand and I knew he was nervous, "Yeah, I am." I laughed, "Remember Nora, the woman with silver hair, about as tall as Lebreau?" He nodded his head, "This is her son, Hope."

He smiled at Hope and held out his hand, "Nice to meet you, Gadot!" I was glad he was being cool about this. "I didn't know you were gay though, Snow."

"Well, I'm not sure what I am. All I know is that I'm in love with Hope. I don't really find anyone else attractive." I noticed that Lebreau had made her way over.

"Hey there! I'm Lebreau! So, has this one given you any trouble?" She laughed and so did Hope.

He looked at me and smiled, "Not really, he does get a little cranky when he's hungry though." My cheeks got a little red, while everyone else laughed. Even Light.

Maqui and Yuj decided to enter the conversation. Maqui was very quiet and polite so I didn't expect him to say much. Yuj, though, was chatty and loud, "So, Hope, you got yourself a real catch. You'd better keep an eye on him." Yuj is gay, plain and simple. He had taken a liking to me the first day we had organized NORA.

Hope took a step forward and squeezed my hand as tight as he could, "I don't think that's necessary, Snow's got eyes for me. I'm not worried."

I could hear the anger in his voice, "Hey guys, no worries alright!"

Maqui stepped in front of Hope and me, "Hi… um… I'm Maqui! If you ever need me to fix something, I'm your expert!" He was a shy kid, but he never sounded like this. He sounded like Hope the first few days after our first kiss.

Hope held out his hand, "I'm Hope! Nice to meet you!" He sounded better and kind of excited to meet him. I always liked Maqui, he's sort of like the little brother that I never had. It was nice because I didn't have a family and NORA became that for me.

He turned to me and gave me a hug, "I missed you Snow!" Hope let go of my hand so I could hug him back.

"I missed you guys too!" He let me go and I did the same.

"How come you didn't tell us you were a l'Cie?" He looked sad.

I crossed my arms, "Well, it's kind of hard to do when Cocoon's military is chasing you." We all laughed. "Don't you worry about us, there are people out there that need your help. NORA's help!"

The other members nodded, "Right!"

"What's our motto?" I asked to get them ready to go again.

"fal'Cie are no match for NORA!" They all cheered.

I always felt sort of silly doing that, but at least it got things done, "Now go get 'em." Everyone got back on their bikes and started the engines.

"Bye everyone! See ya later!" Lebreau called out.

Maqui looked back, I thought he was looking at me, but he wasn't. "I'll see ya later Hope! Nice meeting you!" They all started to pull away and it kind of hurt to see them go.

I knew I'd see them again, but I didn't know when. As I tried to keep my cool, I felt an arm slip around my side and rest on my waist. Hope leaned up against my side and rested his other hand on my stomach, "Don't worry Snow. We will see them again, soon." I put my arm around him and we watched them take off.

I heard footsteps, "It's a good thing they have you." It was Lightning, she had a soft look on her face.

I squeezed Hope, "It's a good thing I have them too. Without them, I wouldn't be here and for that, I owe them everything." Hope moved the hand on my stomach to my waist and squeezed me. "Let's get going."

We walked through the gate and finally to Leviathan Plaza, from here we could get to Eden Hall. We walked through the plaza and got back to the main road. There were PSICOM all over the place including feral creatures. It was difficult to sneak around all of it, but Light led the way and we made it just fine.

Once we were in Eden Hall with the rest of the Cocoon people, Sazh spoke up, "I think, that since we've made it this far, we take a quick break. We can't charge in on an empty stomach and no energy to fight, right?" Even though we didn't want to admit it, we weren't indestructible and we did need to take a break.

Hope grabbed my hand, "Let's sit; I want to show you something." He looked excited.

…

Snow sat down and I sat on his lap. I liked to sit there because I could cuddle with him better, "Alright, is there anywhere that you would want to be right now?" I asked.

He looked at me confused, "What?" I grabbed his hands.

"Close your eyes and concentrate on your favorite place to be." He closed his and I watched the corners of his mouth work their way upward. "Let me know when you're completely there."

He was quiet for a second and nodded his head, "There." I closed my eyes and made him fall asleep. I nestled into his chest and made myself Leave.

I woke up in a bright place and began to focus on Snow. I opened my eyes to see him sitting on the stairs at Lebreau's inn in Bodhum. "So, this is it?" I smiled and sat down next to him.

"I'm not there just yet, follow me." He smiled, it was great that I couldn't feel emotions when I was Leaving, but I could tell that he was excited about something. He stood up and held his hand out to me. I took it and he pulled me up. Once on my feet, Snow picked me up bridal-style and carried me into the inn. We turned the corner just passed the bar and ended up in a hallway. We turned to the right and on went all the way to the end. On the right, there was a room with the door wide open. There were posters on the wall of aerobikes and concert promotions. You could tell that a guy lived here. "This room was mine. This was actually where I met Lebreau. It was her parents inn at first, but when she got out of school she took over for them. We were just kids back then and when her parents found out that I had no home, they gave me this room." I looked in his eyes and saw how thankful he was.

"Well, I'm glad they helped you! I would've too." Snow looked at me and smiled. I put a hand on his cheek and kissed him, "How come you picked this place though?" I was curious.

He walked us over to the bed and laid us down. I sprawled out on his chest. Even when we were sleeping I could still feel how warm and strong he was. His arms curled around me and kept me comfortable. He was always so gentle about it too, but I knew that he wouldn't let anything happen to me as long as I was there. Snow sighed, "I picked _this place _because here was the first time I ever saw you. It was the night of the fireworks and just before I left to get Serah, I heard a glass break. Remember?"

I propped my chin up on his chest to look at him, "Yeah, I do remember you popping your head out from around the corner. It's funny how small of a world we live in isn't it." I smiled and couldn't help but remember the look on his face that night.

"When I looked at you, I instantly felt a pull. I knew it was in your direction, but I didn't know that I was headed straight for you." He ran his fingers through my hair, "I'm so lucky to have you and I thank everything that brought us together. I love you Hope." His voice was so soft, yet it made me shiver with lust. I wanted him, I wanted to have sex with him, but I knew that it would be better when we were awake to truly feel it.

I pushed myself up and swung a leg over him. I strattled him and leaned down to kiss him, "I love you too Snow. Being with you is perfect and I wouldn't have it any other way." I kissed him again and this time Snow's hands were rested on my hips. He kissed me back and his lips felt incredible, lighting up every part of me that has been waiting since Oerba. His scruff tickled so I started to giggle and Snow found it as the opportunity to let his tongue into my mouth. I couldn't help but moan a little as I let our tongues move together with our lips.

Snow's hands moved to my ass and he squeezed and I arched my back into him, "Hope!" Snow sighed as his warm hands made their way up my back and under my shirt. He nibbled on my lip and I sighed to let him know what he was doing was right. He knew all the places to touch me to get a reaction. Before he lifted up my shirt, his hands went up my sides and he ran his thumbs over my nipples. I broke my lips from his and gasped at how great it felt. He pulled my shirt up over my head and before I could do anything Snow started kissing my neck. He sucked and nibbled on my neck and I pulled the bandana from his head and grabbed his hair. He trailed down my neck and to my chest. He licked and nibbled my nipples and I let out a soft moan.

"Please! Snow, we can't have sex just-" I was interrupted by his lips crashing into mine.

He put his hands gently on my face as he pulled away. I looked in his eyes, the blue was deep enough to swim in. "I know baby." He kissed me lightly and I let my arms fall around his neck, "You make it so hard for me to stop." He ran his fingers down my chest and stomach, "You are just so damn beautiful." He smiled and I felt my cheeks get hot. I tried to turn my head away, but I felt his strong, but careful hand catch my chin. Snow pushed his lips against my cheek and then to the other, "There's no need to turn away sweetheart, you are stunning, blush and all." He flashed me his heart-melting half-smile and kissed me.

"I don't want to stop either, but I want to do it when we are awake." I got off his lap and noticed the massive tent in his pants. I was shocked, "Wow!" I couldn't help myself.

I stood up from the bed and realized I was hard too, "Well, it seems like you're just as excited as I am." He laughed. He sat up on the edge of the bed and grabbed my hips. He pulled me close to him and kissed my stomach just above my pants, "Do you trust me?"

I nodded my head and I watched him run a hand over my pants where my erection was. I bit my lip.

…

I wanted him so bad and since we couldn't have sex yet, the least I could do was suck him off right? I unbuckled his pants and pulled them to the floor. There was a small wet spot on his underwear right at the head. This was going to be fun.

I slid down his boxers to reveal what was underneath. For being almost fifteen, he had a pretty nice sized dick. I gently wrapped my fingers around him and pumped it a few times. Hope moaned and threw his head back. The head leaked some precum and I licked it off. Hope moaned a little louder, "Snow!" I let go of him and licked from the base all the way to the head and his entire body shivered. He tasted amazing, another thing I could add to the list that mad Hope perfect. I did it again, "Oh, Snow!" He called my name again and I knew that was permission to keep going. I took him in my mouth and went all the way to the bottom. Hope cried out in pleasure and I came up and went back down. I felt him run his fingers through my hair and grab a handful. I started to pick up speed and Hope started to move his hips back and forth. He moaned and sighed louder and louder. I knew he couldn't hold on much longer. I pulled his throbbing dick out of my mouth. I guided him to lie down on the bed, while I knelt down on the floor.

I licked my finger and put it between his legs; I probed around his hole until Hope let out a sigh of permission. I slowly pushed a finger into him. He grunted in discomfort and I kissed his stomach and pumped his shaft a few times to help him relax. When he did, my finger slipped right in and I began to slide it in and out. I went back to sucking him and kept a good rhythm going with my finger and my head. Hope's moans turned into cries of pleasure and ecstasy. I felt his cock expand and his muscles tighten around my finger, "Snow!" He screamed for me and I pushed my finger as deep as it could go and I pushed my head down all the way to take his entire length in my mouth. He moaned and grunted and bucked his hips while he let himself go. He pulsed and shot his seed down my throat. Something I wasn't used to, but I would make the exception for Hope. When his moaning was reduced to panting, I lifted my head from him and pulled my finger from his hole.

I leaned over him and kissed him, "How'd that feel baby?" I smiled when his eyes opened and he looked at me.

"That was incredible! I love you so much Snow!" He crashed his lips into mine. I rolled onto my side and he kissed me again.

I couldn't help but laugh. "Alright kiddo!" I kissed him back, "I think my brain is a little tired so why don't we lie down and relax." As much as I wanted him to go down on me, I just couldn't do it yet. I had to make sure that he was completely ready before I let him go below the belt.

"Sounds good!" Hope smiled and slid his boxers back on. I got off the bed and stripped down to my underwear. I got back on the bed and Hope had already started to get under the blankets. I joined him and pulled him close to me. I laced my fingers into his and kissed him on top of his head, like I do every time we go to bed. "I love you. See you when we wake up." I squeezed him tight and closed my eyes.

XXX

Even the brightest lights cast a shadow. We all slowly learn that. Hope's powers are great beyond measure, but came with a dark price. If he ever lost control, it would be the end of many lives. There are few things that can bring people back when they've fallen, Snow seems to be one of those few things for Hope.

With the end coming just around the corner, we had to make sure everyone was ready because no one was safe. Saving Cocoon was going to be something beyond what the six of us could do.

-Fang

XXX

**Author's Note: **What did you guys think? I know it was a little long, but I wanted to give you guys something with a bit more than usual. Next chapter is going to be tough to write, but I'm sure you all know what's coming next. Thank you guys so much for reading and supporting this story! :)


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

_Fal'Cie rule was near its end. Whether it be saved from its fall or collide with Pulse, Cocoon was to be no more. Our heroes were to reach their destination, but for what? To save a world they will never see again? For after Cocoons salvation or damnation, five of them would become crystal to never know what became of their efforts._

_Orphan's Cradle was a vast plane of data parallel to the physical realm; much like the plane of existence that a Leaver travels to, except Orphan's Cradle was inorganically made. As our group began to pass through, everyone thought of one thing- saving Cocoon._

XXX

We were near the end of Orphan's Cradle and out of nowhere I felt this immense pain in my chest. It brought me to my knees. Snow knelt down, "What's wrong?"

"Hopefully the fal'Cie will save us! Everything is going to be alright. Take the children with you; it'll be safer that way." The pain began to spread and I fell over, "I can feel the city. We have to stop this!" I felt squeezing of my entire body and then my head started to pound. Everyone's pain and worry was crushing me, I couldn't help but cry out in pain. Everyone took a step closer and I screamed, "Get away! Stop it!" I pulled my knees to my chin and cried.

Snow put a hand on me, "Focus on me."

I tried as hard as I could to focus on his touch, but it did nothing, "It won't go away."

"Look at me." I looked at him through squinted eyes, "Focus on me. Focus on love." When I looked into his eyes, I felt all of the pain slowly fade into something I could block out. I was able to bring my attention to love. It was then that my shield wasn't just love; it was Snow's love for me.

I smiled at him, "You're my shield. Your love for me is my shield." I wrapped my arms around his neck, "I love you Snow."

"I love you too!" He laughed and squeezed me.

I pulled back and looked at him, "Forever and ever?"

"Forever and ever." He kissed me and helped me to my feet. As we began to head toward the portal to the Narthex Throne, I could feel the entire city clouding up the back of my mind. I grabbed Snow's hand, "You alright kiddo?"

"Fine, it's just that I can feel the entire city. It's like I'm at the mercy of everyone's feelings. I just wish it would go away for five minutes."

"Well can't you make people feel emotions?" He asked.

I nodded my head, "But I can't make the entire city feel better."

He laughed, "No, I wasn't trying to get at that. Why don't you share the weight of the emotions with me?" I thought it over for a second, "If my love is your shield then I'm sure I can handle it."

"Okay." I took a deep breath and concentrated on letting it all flow between Snow and I. I only felt just a few people now and I could finally relax, but at the same time I felt Snow tense up, "I can stop it if it's too much."

He shook his head, "No, it's fine. If it helps you feel better then don't let go."

…

I had no idea that Hope was going through this. I could feel just how scared everyone was. It wasn't just in my head; I could the city's anguish through my entire body. We reached the portal, but before going through we all knew we needed to stop and possibly say our goodbyes.

It was hard because these people were my family now. I knew that I should tell Hope now about my Focus so that way it wouldn't come as too much of a shock when the time came. "Hope, I have to tell you something."

"It's about your brand isn't it? I can tell." He looked at me a little concerned and so did everyone else.

This was like telling Lightning about Hope and I. I started to feel nervous, "After this, when we survive, I'm not going into crystal stasis. My Focus has nothing to do with saving Cocoon, Ragnarok or anything like that. You guys, your Foci are all the same."

Vanille sighed, "I think we should tell them."

"Hope, you are the 'key' to Ragnarok. 'Only the life between two worlds can release the key.' Since you are the half-blood child, your magic is the key to the complete form of Ragnarok." Fang told us.

Lightning crossed her arms, "What do you mean complete?"

"During the War of Transgression, Fang turned into the monster, but since it wasn't complete she couldn't tear Cocoon from the sky. Since Hope has discovered his true power, I can now take the other half and finish it. But this time-" Vanille was cut off.

It was Hope, "I don't want to talk about this alright. It's bad enough that we might lose each other beyond this point, and hearing that I'm the catalyst, is just too much!" I heard his voice start to crack. He let go of my hand, "There's no turning back after we go in there. If we don't save Cocoon, then we might as well have just let ourselves turn to Cei'th. So we aren't going to say goodbye here. We aren't going to say it at all, because we are going to save Cocoon and we are going to make it out together!"

XXX

_The first target, Barthandelus, was no simple fight. As the party began the battle it was soon realized that speed was important. Hope was to sit this battle out for what could happen was unknown. The Thanatosian Laughter had knocked all but Hope to their feet._

_"Boy! The power you posses beyond anyone else's! Become the savior! Become Ragnarok!" Barthandelus asked of Hope. He had reverted to Dysley and walked toward Hope, "Come now and take its form."_

_Hope tried to cast a spell to knock him back, but it didn't work, "I'm not doing it! Get away from me!" He shouted._

_Dysley laughed, "Let all of those emotions inside your head fuel your anger. Let it empower you." He held out a hand started to shock Hope. "You can't block it out can you? Let it take over, bring forth our long-awaited end."_

_Hope's body shook in pain and slowly everyone in the city began to trickle back into his mind and body. He could feel a pulling and he knew just where he was headed; the darkness. His body crumpled under the weight of the city and pain of electricity. The others had finally managed to get back up and they charged after Dysley, "Let him go!" Lightning commanded. She swung her blade but it was deflected. Snow threw a fist, but the same outcome._

_"Vanille, try that Death spell." Fang said._

_"Alright!" Vanille stepped up and began to cast but she was cut short. Something began choking her. She struggled to break free but found she couldn't. Dysley was telekinetically strangling her._

_He looked down to Hope, "Your friend here is about to make you destroy Cocoon. Let what's about to happen burn deep and let Ragnarok awaken." He held out a hand and quickly balled a fist. There was a loud crack. She went limp and her body dropped to the floor._

_"Vanille!" Fang screamed, "Why?!" She collapsed next to her and cried._

_Sazh knelt down beside Vanille and let the tears fall. Snow turned his back to it, he didn't want to believe what he just saw. Lightning tried her hardest to keep from breaking down, but failed, "Bastard-"_

_"Bastard! You killed her!" Hope stood up and his eyes glowed white. The same white Vanille had seen in the back of the truck. Hope focused on Snow and began to draw his physical power. He swung a fist and pierced the armor. His fist went straight through Dysley's chest._

_Fang had gotten up and got behind the primarch, "This one's for Vanille." She took her spear and jammed it into his center. She twisted the handles which made the ends close. Dysley screamed in pain while Fang dragged his body toward the strange fluid in the back of the room. She held his body over the edge, "We are saving Cocoon, not destroying it." She lifted a foot and kicked the back of his head to make him fall off the spear._

_She turned back and headed toward Vanille again. She fell to the ground and cradled her, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry." She kissed the top of her head and sobbed._

**Author's Note: **I'm so sorry that this is really short, but I wanted to give you guys something before school started up. More will be soon to follow though. Let me know what you guys think! And again, thank you all so SO much for reading! :)


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8.5

"_Fang, I can heal her." They all looked at him. His eyes still glowed._

_ Fang shook her head, "You can't heal the dead."_

_ "Yes I can." There was something about Hope that was off. Fang laid her sister's body to the ground. "I can push a Burst through the Life spell. If an Empathic Burst destroys the life emotions come from, then life can be brought back if channeled the right way." He knelt down, put a hand in the center of her chest and closed his eyes. All of the little crystals floating in the air stopped moving. Hope began to glow white. The temperature began to cool to a more bearable heat. _

_ Inside Hope's head, he was channeling all of the emotions in the room and in the city into a burst of energy. He was pulling it all in to his center and now he just had to cast it. He drained everything he could until all of the emotions went quiet. He released the Burst and it went from Hope's hand into Vanille. Her body lit up in a green light, much different from when the spell was used on Snow._

_ Hope's eyes returned to normal and he got up and stepped back. The green covering Vanille's body had been absorbed and then it was just her again. Snow had turned around to see if this spell would work and sure enough it had. There was a loud gasp for air and Vanille opened her eyes. "What happened? Was I dead?" She sat up and looked at everyone's puffy, red eyes._

_ Fang squeezed her, "Only for a minute. Clearly that Death spell of yours is a threat." Vanille was confused, but everyone smiled._

_ Sazh took her hand in his, "You know Vanille, I was worried I wouldn't have a climbing coach anymore." Vanille leaned away from Fang and gave the man a hug._

_ "Oh Sazh, you know me better than that!" They were all glad to have her back. Snow had stood behind Hope and wrapped his arms around his waist._

_ It was in that moment that Snow had learned something; he could feel Hope's emotions. "Yeah, tell me about it." He rested his chin on Hope's head. He felt that Hope was relieved and Hope felt that Snow agreed._

_ Vanille stood up, "Who brought me back?"_

_ "I did." Hope smiled shyly. The pig-tailed Pulsian sprang up and gave Hope a hug. Snow let go of him so he could hug her back._

_ "Thank you so much Hope!" She pulled away and there were tears in her eye, "Thank you!"_

_ Sazh, always being the planner, had spoke up, "I'm all for celebration, but I think we should leave." It always times like these when something came up. Whenever it was time to leave, something made them stay._

_ Lightning looked up and heard Hope say, "It's that bird again!" The owl that had been so loyal to Barthandelus had shown itself again. This time, soaring above our heroes only to dive into the pool after its owner. A bright light escaped from the surface and the room began to quake._

_Something began to rise from the pool, "A haven, yea. Yet it must fall ere we be saved. Too frail a shell and humans should not thrive. Too stout a shell and they would not die." The being slammed a purple, crystalline fist to the ground and the party had lost balance, "Slaughter and salvation! Two irreconcilable Focuses we bore. Yet bound were we in a cocoon prison, impervious to our power. And so we thank you for granting us our longed-for birth. We are the Abandoned One, born but now to die. Our name is Orphan. By our hand, the world shall know redemption."_

_Orphan was now awakened and all of Cocoon knew it, because for just a second, all of the fal'Cie stopped functioning. "Fang, Hope we are gonna fight this time!" Lightning commanded and gained a nod from the two, "Fang, use your debuffing. Hope, give use your helping magic." Lightning knew that Hope was now the most powerful in the group._

_The massive humanoid-crystal deity rose up to expose a white tail wrapping around a long crystal blade-like shaft. Orphan tilted back and slammed the blade down and nearly took out the party. Hope and Lightning jumped up quickly to heal, while Fang provoked the enemy. Once their health was restored they returned to the previous paradigm. Once all the debuff and aiding spells were cast, it was time take the offensive lead. Light and Hope switched to offensive magic while Fang went into physical attacks. The three would each get a chance to cast a few spells and take a swing, but Orphan's larger hand would swipe them to interrupt the flow of damage._

_Sazh, Snow and Vanille stood to the side silently. Snow was too absorbed in his ability to feel Hope. He knew that Hope was determined, but tired. He wished he could take his spot and fight for him so he could rest. Vanille watched in a daze. She was thinking about when the time would come that she and Fang would have to turn into the monster that would end it all. Sazh was in total disbelief. He wondered if he would ever get to see his son again. Would he be there if Dahj came out of stasis? Would he get to see his only son grow up? Dahj had already lost his mother and the thought of him growing up without either parent was crushing him._

_Orphan rose again and came crashing down on the battlefield, it had been about twenty minutes of fighting already and everyone was near empty. Snow felt every blow that Hope took and it was really taking a toll on them both. Once the party had staggered it for the second time, it seemed as though Orphan was done… So they thought._

_Orphan chuckled and rose from the pool once more, except this time, the script and symbols going down the crystal shaft were pulsing with a purple light. There was a wave of darkness that shot out from the suicidal newborn. As it traveled to the rest of the room, it lingered and electric darkness sparked. Everyone was brought to the ground._

_When it all faded, only two of our l'Cie remained conscious- the Pulsians. "Have you ever paused to consider our reasoning of making l'Cie of men? We fal'Cie are crafted for a single purpose and granted finite power to that end. With men it is not so. Men dream, aspire, and through indomitable force of will achieve the impossible. Your power is beyond measure." Orphan spoke to the women, "We take l'Cie that we might wield such strength. Through you, we obtain freedom from our bondage. And now, your Focus alone remains." The purple, crystal side of Orphan pointed a finger and looked at Vanille. Two concentric circles appeared around her chest and one smaller circle around her legs._

_Pain seared though Vanille's body, she cried out in pain and fell to her knees, "Defy it and will be for naught. Cocoon's sacrifice, and that of Gran Pulse as well." Vanille tried her hardest to manage. The pain was almost too much, "Yet if we must summon the Maker, we will be granted the chance to begin again, all our sins absolved, and the world born anew! Submit l'Cie-"_

"_Stop it!" Fang cried out._

"_- become Ragnarok. Lead us into the light!"_

"_Let her go!" Fang demanded in fright as she watched Vanille being lifted into the air and electrocuted._

"_We have no need a flawed l'Cie."_

_ Fang looked up, "Orphan, I'll do it. I'll destroy you." Fang would do anything to make sure that Vanille stayed safe. Both of the faces showed a devious grin and dropped Vanille as if she were a doll. She turned to Vanille._

_ "Ragnarok, the will to guide a world unto oblivion. Can you bear the sin of our salvation?" Orphan questioned the taller Pulsian._

_ This made Fang increasingly angry, "You heard me. I said I'll do it!" She snapped back._

_ The smaller, pig-tailed girl wanted anything but Fang to relive the nightmare she once had, "You can't! I'll be fine. And you can't forget our promise! We promised to save Cocoon! We promised-" Vanille was hushed by a spear just inches from her face._

_ "I made another promise too, to protect my family." She lowered the spear. At this same moment the others were beginning to wake up. Fang turned toward her counterpart, still on the ground._

_ "Fang?" Snow asked._

_ The dark-haired warrior's face was reaped with sorrow, but then to anger, "Sometimes, you gotta choose!" She pulled back to swing her spear to finish off Vanille. Vanille gasped and hid her face._

_ Fang began to swing, but Snow caught both ends of the spear with his arms, "Back off!" Fang commanded of the blonde._

_ "What are you doing?" He asked as she tried to wrestle free._

_ She felt something heavy around her waist; Sazh, "This ain't no time to be losing it lady!"_

_ "You too, huh?" By this time Light, Hope and Vanille were on their feet again._

_ Light and Hope guarded her, "What do you gain from hurting Vanille? We're in this together!" Lightning was pissed that she even needed to remind Fang of this well-known fact._

_ "This is my Focus, no one's gonna stop me!" She shoved Snow back and smacked Sazh to the ground with her spear to follow it up by kicking Snow in chest and knocking him a couple yards away. Fang pulled her spear across her opposite shoulder and the blades opened up at the end. She leapt into the air and kicked her spear higher. As her body began to fall back down, the tail wrapped around Orphan's crystal blade assisted her to jump up and gave her a boost of energy. She turned herself upside down and grabbed the spear. The ends closed and she began fall. She flipped and drove the spear to the ground. A massive wave of destructive energy burst from the point of contact and had knocked everyone back._

_Everything went white…_

_ When the brightness faded, it was revealed that in place of Lightning, Snow, Sazh and Hope were Cei'th. Only Fang and Vanille remained. Fang felt defeated. Mostly that she tore herself down from the inside, out only to have achieved nothing, "Everything I do, why?" She became angry again, "Is this what you meant to happen?! All of 'em."_

_ Orphan laughed at her while the Cei'th began to stand, "After all we went through." Vanille dropped to her knees in tears. The Cei'th went after Fang._

_ She knew what was to come. They surrounded her and started swinging their massive stone limbs. The monsters could only do her physical harm for she was already destroyed on the inside, "Guess I deserve it… after what I did." She took an uppercut and collapsed in a coughing fit to catch her breath. She dropped her spear, "Are they my sin to bear for choosing salvation?"_

_ The Cei'th kept beating her, "Please stop!" Vanille quietly begged and one-by-one the Cei'th laid in top of her, crushing her. Vanille had had enough, "Stop it!" She screamed._

_ Orphan only laughed at the both of them, it knew that the only way to bring about their end was to bring someone close to theirs. Vanille cried out, "Give them back!"_

_ Fang's arm was the only part of her uncovered from the stone tomb and the 'messed up' brand on her shoulder lit up. The Cei'th pile was broken up by something underneath exploding; Fang. She got to her feet and faced Orphan with a red-glowing brand. The eye of the mark was now open and released a power that she bitterly remembered. She felt the same burning five hundred years ago. It was time for her to take the dreadful form of the monster she so wanted to be rid of._

_ As her body was encased in light, Orphan spoke, "Salvation is born of sacrifice. Miracles of misery from shattered shards, a new crystal legend will arise." The impure Ragnarok charged at the death-bound god, but was deflected by a shield. Next to Vanille she recovered and became enraged. Fueling her power, Ragnarok let anger take over. "Yes! Let anger be your strength!" Vanille gasped in terror. The beast latched onto the barrier while Orphan laughed with greed, "Despair! Despair and save us all!" The unfinished destroyer clawed into the barrier, becoming angrier that she couldn't destroy it. Ragnarok put all her force and energy into destroying it and she finally shattered it. "Lo! The day of wrath has come!" Orphan cheered._

_XXX_

Oh the memories, the journey we all took together. For each of us, we learned of our breaking points and just how much we could handle. I remember when Hope told me about his plan to kill Snow in Palumpolum. On top of the building when they were alone, but that blast had stopped him from exacting his revenge. He fell, but never touched the ground. Snow had wrapped him in his arms.

In Nautilus, telling Sazh that I was the reason his son was in crystal stasis. I had never felt so evil and truly awful. Worst of all, when he pulled his gun and wouldn't shoot me, I only wanted him to make me pay for taking his child away. When he turned the gun on himself, I knew then that he blamed himself.

When Snow was ready to die to 'eliminate' the Pulse threat, I was scared. We all were, even Lightning. That moment proved to us all that we were in fact a family.

On Lake Bresha with Lightning, she was so angry. She just kept punching Snow to the ground. Having to accept that someone is gone with someone constantly trying to keep them around is hard. I understood why she did it. She needed to be able to let Serah go even though she knew there was a chance of getting her back.

_Anger didn't drive us; we just… had things worth fighting for._

-Vanille

XXX

_ Orphan still towered over the Pulsian women, but this time Fang was on the ground in place of Ragnarok. She was so tired. "Yet again. How many times must you fail?" The left, female side held up a hand to heal her. Both sides then held out hand, and hovering above them were two purple orbs which they cast onto Fang. These orbs became shackles around her wrists that brought her into the air._

_ "Let me go." Fang quietly protested._

_ "Retake the form of Ragnarok. Deliver us that which we have too long been denied!" Orphan's crystalline hand cast immense amounts of pain through Fang's body. This was the worst pain she had ever felt and all she could do was cry out in pain. It stopped and the humanoid hand healed her._

_ "What do you want?" Fang asked before the pain began again. This time even worse, she felt her body crippling; the only movements she could make were those reacting to the pain. It stopped and then she was healed again. Vanille watched as her partner went through this and was scared. Her fear though, quickly subsided._

_ "Steep yourself in hatred. Let it infuse your soul with the strength it craves." Vanille stood up and began to step toward the torturous god. Orphan looked down to her, intrigued. "Your awakening demands an offering of pain!" It held up its hand to begin the pain again._

_ Fang looked down, "Vanille… Run." She was so tired and out of breath._

_ "No! I swore I wouldn't run away anymore! I'd rather fight AND lose than give up without even trying!" Vanille stood her ground and was going to make sure that Orphan knew it. In the very instant she had stated herself, four beams of magic crashed into Orphan and Fang was flung across the room. "Fang!" She called out to her._

_ Vanille knew she wouldn't catch her, but someone else would; Snow. Sazh stepped up too, "Miracles out of misery. You've got to be kidding me."_

_ Hope stood beside his taller lover and healed the woman he had just caught, "Yeah, Fang. Who'd be dumb enough to swallow that crock?" Snow let her down._

_ Then the girl named Lightning made her way to the rest of the reunion, gun-blade drawn, "Sure, we've all had better weeks." She held a familiar spear in her other hand._

_ "You're alive!" Vanille gasped._

_ Fang was shocked, "But you can't be!"_

_ Flames built up around the deity's body, "Could be more fal'Cie smoke and mirrors."_

_ "Fang, I'm sorry." Snow told her._

_ Lightning chimed in, "We made you go it alone." She held the spear out to Fang._

_ "Second time now, isn't it?" She shook her head, but came back with determination and took her weapon back._

_ Vanille still sounded worried, "But, where were you?" She asked._

_ "Somewhere cold and dark, just thinking about everything that happened up until now." Hope told her, "And then… And then it was like-"_

_ "It was like- I had a glimpse of the future. Everyone was smiling and laughing." Snow smiled, "Even Serah. Even Light."_

_ Sazh joined explanations, "I don't know. It was like a new Focus, or something. You know, I'm thinking, didn't really make sense of course. I mean, knowing we were worm bait and all, but… As luck would have it, next thing I know I feel someone pushing me right along." The chocobo chick hiding in the man's afro popped out and Vanille smiled._

_ "You were there too, Fang. Same side. All of us." Lightning told her, "Together to the end."_

XXX

Back on Pulse, Vanille and I began talking about what really happened the first Ragnarok was summoned. She knew the whole time that it was me who did it, but lied. Even though I was mad at her, I knew she had good reason. She began to cry and I pulled her into a hug.

_"Listen, you're alone anymore… We have a new family now. We stick together, you hear me?"_

_ "Yes, I promise."_

-Fang

XXX

The brand of a l'Cie. The symbol of the Focus we all faced. The mark of the fate we all shared. Proof of the promise we all made

XXX

_ Vanille smiled, "We promised, didn't we?"_

_ Fang smiled back, but only to be interrupted by the wailing of Orphan on its way down. Lightning readied her blade and stood at the front of the group. Hope, Light, Sazh and Snow readied themselves to defend the each other. Orphan groveled on its way to the grave it wanted so badly to end up in. "The heroes never die." Snow said, "Come on, we've got a world to save!"_

_ "If we have the power to destroy Cocoon, then we have the power to save it." Hope explained, "You say you want your day of wrath, do ya? Well its coming right up!"_

_ "It's time to give the people what they really want." Sazh spoke._

_ Vanille looked to the ground and back up with eyes full of the optimism everyone missed, "We can do it! I know we can. We made it this far."_

_ "Right." Light nodded._

_ The pink-haired girl turned to her partner, "Let's make a real miracle happen!"_

_ "Lady luck sure ain't on his side!" Fang exclaimed as she stepped forward and readied herself for battle. There was a strange laughter coming from somewhere. It was high pitched and dangerously obnoxious. It was soon apparent that the laughter came from the reborn god rising from the pool just ahead of them._

_This Orphan was a clock-like wheel with a face in the center and it spoke, "You overreach yourselves." This new form looked down upon our heroes._

"_No. We overreach you." Lightning told him._

_Orphan questioned her, "Is that so?"_

"_You don't believe in anything. You gave up on life before you were even born. Sat poisoning Cocoon from the inside, waiting for someone to come and destroy you. Sure, you think the end of the world is salvation. All you care about is death's release. So take it, and leave the rest of us alone. We don't think like that." Lightning's speech, though somewhat dramatic, was truly giving everyone the pick-me-up they all needed to finish this nightmare. "When we think there's no hope left, we keep looking until we find some. Maybe Cocoon is past saving, but it's our home. And we'll protect it or die trying!" She pointed her gun-blade, "We live to make the impossible possible! That is our Focus!"_

_Orphan let out a scream, and Fang led Hope and Light into battle, "Alright, Hope you get started on the synergizing and Lightning, you and I are going to attack." Fang began swinging and stabbing with her spear and found that it didn't help at all. Neither did Lightning's magic._

"_I think we have to stagger it!" Called Hope to the others. None of their attacks did anything except build up to a stagger. Hope had switched to fighting-magic and the team began to attack._

_Snow stood on the sidelines feeling the excitement of battle from Hope. He looked at his younger love with a sort of lust. Not a carnal desire for his body, but watching Hope fight made Snow want wrap his arms around him and make love to him. Vanille rooted for her Pulsian companion, silently. She knew that she shouldn't distract her from battle. She couldn't wait to be rid of Orphan and l'Cie brand on her thigh. She was excited for life outside of her Focus, but she was terrified about getting there. Sazh only pondered the thought of getting his son back. The afro-haired man only pushed on as a means to find his son. When he turned to crystal in front of him, he carried on to get Dahj back. For the entire party, getting here was something they all needed to do. None of them knew whether they would save the world or not, but they were sure going to try. At times, each of them had to laugh to keep from crying because not a single one of our heroes knew the outcome of their efforts. Sometimes, when it all got dark and it was hard to see a way out, they just needed to remember the reasons why they were making this journey._

_The blades and spells had finally reached their goal of staggering Orphan and each of them began to attack with all they had. Fang and Lightning used physical attacks and Hope used the most powerful magic he knew. They kept it up and eventually knocked out quite a bit of Orphan's health. Fang had called Bahumut to aid in battle to finish off the enemy. "Lightning, Hope, Cast firaga spells. We are going to do what we did back on the racetrack." Light and Hope began to cast as many firaga spells into the air as possible before Bahumut was ready for gestalt mode._

_Orphan asked to the party members before them, "Does eternity not entice you?"_

_Hope looked up to see Bahumut changing into gestalt form, so he quickly pulled the flames into a ball. "Let 'em have it!" Fang commanded to her Eidolon. Bahumut summoned a massive ball of energy and then it shrank. The dragon sent it into the flames, "Drop it on Orphan Hope!" She yelled down to him and he did as he was told. He cast the, now expanding, ball of destruction onto Orphan and let it wreak its havoc. It pulled in and exploded again, but when the smoke cleared the deity was still there. His stagger was gone._

"_We have to build up the stagger again." Lightning told the others, "Fang, Try to debuff him while we attack." They all went ahead and began their staggering effort. The party had finally reached Orphan's stagger point again._

"_Let me finish him off." Fang ran toward Orphan and leapt into the air. Just as before, she kicked her spear, but this time, it split in two. She reached up and grabbed the dual-blades. Bright orange streaks of energy followed her down to the ground. She drove the blades as far into the ground as she could, and the streaks funneled themselves down into the ground. The crest of Bahumut formed around her and everyone else stood back. She pulled her weapons out and made them whole once more. As Fang pulled them from the ground, a smaller crest lit up in front of her. "Try this on for size!" She spun around and, with all her might, swung around and shattered the crest which created a wave of light that crashed into Orphan._

_She stabbed the center of the symbol on the ground and all of the light had stopped to form a sphere around the god. Strange symbols hovered around Fang in the formation of armor; a breastplate, shoulder pads, shin-guards, gauntlets and a helmet. She left her spear to run up to the ball of light. She kicked it and it began to crack up the middle. Fang dug her hands in and pulled it apart. Orphan's body was exposed again, but this time, light shown through its eyes and mouth. The rest of its body looked like shattered glass that could be blown away at any moment._

"_We're here to stop him! We've come to save Cocoon, right?" Lightning said over the screams of Orphan._

"_Right!" The rest of the party called. As Orphan fell to its end, the eye hanging behind it emitted a bright, white light._

_Out in the rest of the city crystal shards and feral creatures littered the air. The electricity went out with the power that fal'Cie Phoenix lost as well. Night had fallen on Cocoon along with Pulse below. From Pulse looking up, a light from the hanging planet shown down. Back in Eden, our heroes were suspended in the air, floating away from each other. "Stay together!" Lightning commanded, almost in a panic._

_Only four linked up; Light, Hope, Snow and Sazh. Below them, Fang and Vanille held on to each other. Both knowing what they needed to do, even though their family above called to aid them. Fang looked at her companion, "Vanille?"_

Wishes can come true, but not if you just wait for miracles

-Vanille

_ "Ready." Vanille replied. The others watched with tears in their eyes. Sazh and Hope hurt the most. Those two especially had grown to love the two Pulsian women. They all knew what was about to happen._

Miracles are things we make for ourselves, here and now.

-Vanille

_ With the brand on her shoulder and the brand on her thigh, the sisters held hands and spiraled down and became a single fragment of light. This small twinkle emitted a powerful rush that destroyed every Pulsian beast that had invaded Cocoon. And with their remains, the crystal shards were pulled into the light. A shadow was born of this destruction, but would eventually gain shape; Ragnarok. She was born again, but this time complete. With a hundred arms and crown atop her head, she roared so all the world could hear. It was a beauty that only those who have known death could understand. This Ragnarok was salvation. This Ragnarok would carry the human race into a new era, free of fal'Cie rule._

_ Cocoon had already begun its fall from the sky, but our now-whole savior sprang into action. Leaping down the building into the lava that spewed high into the sky, she dove into the center of it all. Breaking through to the other side, Ragnarok used all her might and many hands to catch the doomed planet. She roared with power and burst out with more arms to wrap around Cocoon. She continued to tap into immense power and magic. Looking down, a pillar soon rose from Pulse and caught Ragnarok and held Cocoon. A blanket of crystal flowed over the land and with a final effort stop the fall, our twin-souled beast released of her power and magic in the form of crystal. This pulled crystal dust from the far reaches of Gran Pulse and solidified the pillar, Ragnarok and Cocoon._

_ When it all had cleared, it was done. The sun was rising to begin a new day. This morning would be the start of new life, fresh beginnings and freedom. Fang and Vanille had saved Cocoon._

_ The Hell Below, it was called. Gran Pulse, the land where it all began. The place Barthandelus and Lyndzei were banished from to create a cocoon in the sky, where the traitors of Etro and followers of Lyndzei could tread. It is of this land that life was harbored and where life would end up._

_ Four humans stood in crystal. Lightning Ferron, Hope Estheim, Snow Villiers and Sazh Katzroy had reached their goal together with the women that saved them all; Oerba yun Fang and Oerba dia Vanille._

_ Crystal stasis is awarded to those l'Cie who complete their Focus, but what about Snow and his Focus? This man was rewarded for his bravery to see the journey through to the end. Although his Focus was different he fought with his friends to save them._

_ 'Wake up.' A familiar voice was heard. A soft, light-hearted voice called to the crystal fighters. Each of them awoke from stasis. Each of them had a vision of the one that brought them back. For Hope it brought a tear to his eye to envision her. Snow had sighed with sadness seeing the pig-tailed girl in his head. Lightning had to smile to keep from crying, having the picture in her mind of the cheery character. Sazh knew this was goodbye, but didn't want to face it. He silently said his 'thank you' and painfully said his last 'goodbye'. _

_ "They did it! They saved the world!" Lightning said trying to hold back the tears._

_ Snow stepped behind her to look up the hanging globe, "No, they gave us a new one." The other two had joined them in their gazing._

_ The little chocobo popped out of Sazh's hair, "That's one gift I'll forgive 'em for not wrapping."_

_ 'This is as much as we can do. The rest is up to you.' Vanille's voice rang through their heads and they all knew that each other heard it._

_ "Does this mean… We completed our Focus?" Hope asked._

_ Snow looked down to the base of the pillar to see the military helping the civilians, "Cocoon's seen better days, that's for sure."_

_ "Yeah, I'd say that qualifies as a demolition. Focus completed." Sazh added._

_ 'Huh, whatever you wanna believe.' Snickered the other Pulsian voice._

_ Lightning smiled, "It really is a miracle."_

_ Hope looked down to his arm to see something missing, "My brand; it's gone!" _

It's easy to lose sight of what's important in a world as wide as this one, but if you keep going, you're sure to find what you're looking for… Sooner or later.

-Vanille

_ In the distance two figures were seen moving toward the ex-l'Cies._

_ "Serah!"_

_ "Dahj!"_

**Author's Note: **Alright, there's one or two more chapter left, BUT there will be a sequel coming soon after. I've never really done 3rd person before so let me know how I did. Thanks again for reading!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9

**Author's Precaution: **There is a sex scene in this chapter, fyi…

_When prayers turn to promises, not even fate can stand in their way. -Fang_

_We held the light of hope in our hearts and achieved the impossible, now we live on to greet a new dawn. -Vanille_

XXX

The first couple days after the fall of Cocoon were weird. All of the people who were scared of us, now, needed our help. We were the only ones who knew Pulse at all, so we had to figure out where we would all live. It was decided that we would live in Oerba, for obvious reasons; there was already housing, water was close by and the threat of monsters was low.

Hope and I claimed the room we took before. Crossing the main square brought back a lot of memories. The night I told Lightning about my relationship with Hope, it felt like it was years ago, but it had only been about a week. I tried not to let it show that I was hurting but he wrapped his arms around me, "I know. I feel the same way." I heard him sniffle into my chest. "I don't want them to be gone!"

I squeezed him and rubbed his back, "I don't either, but remember that power you have. You can use it whenever you want." I could tell that he was devastated. I could feel it.

"I'm just glad I still have you. I love you so much Snow!" He looked up at me and the perfect shade of green in his eyes took my breath away, like always. I always managed to get lost in his eyes. I leaned down and kissed him. His lips were just as soft as ever. I could feel how much he loved my kiss and that made it even better for me. I brushed the hair from his face to reveal the smooth pale skin I loved so much. Hope threw his arms around my neck and arched his body into me.

I let my tongue brush against his top lip as if to ask permission to deepen the kiss. "Hope… I can feel you." I told him in between breaths, "I want you so much!" I slid my hands down his back and grabbed his ass. He sighed and I kissed his neck. Even though I knew the spots that made him melt, I could feel exactly where he wanted me to put my lips. Still holding his ass, I lifted him up. Hope wrapped his legs around me and his arms around my neck.

…

I held onto Snow. His lips pressed against every spot that made me shudder in delight. It always got me excited when he would nip my neck. He told me that he could feel me. "Don't tell me. Show me!" I smiled when he looked at me. I could feel his desire for me and I wanted him show exactly how he felt. I was ready for him. I was ready for sex with him.

He squeezed my ass tight and- "Hope!" I heard a familiar man's voice. "What the hell are you doing?" I released my legs from Snow and slid down.

I turned around and was immediately shocked, "Dad?!" The disappointment he felt was crushing, but I tried not to react.

"I don't care what if you're gay, but what the fuck are you doing with someone that old? He's what maybe eight or nine years older than you?" The look on my father's face was anger, but on the inside, I could tell he was about to break.

"Dad, I love him and he loves me." I stepped closer to him.

He looked at him, "You are fourteen years old, you don't even understand what love is yet!" He was about to snap, I could tell not because of his emotions but because I just knew.

Snow was stunned, but knowing him he had to go and say something, "Mr. Estheim, I really do love your son and he loves me back. Please-"

My father moved between Snow and me and punched him in the face, "You leave my son alone!"

I felt Snow's heart shatter. Tears welled in my eyes, "Leave him alone!" My father was angry and Snow was hurt. The both of them were expressing such intense emotion that I could feel myself being overwhelmed. My body fell weak and my vision went blurry. I fell to my knees.

Snow rushed beside me and cradled me, "It's alright, I'm here. I'm not leaving you." He ran his fingers through my hair, "I'm not leaving him. I love Hope; nothing's going to change that."

My dad just stood there, "He's a teenager, he's supposed to be in school, breaking curfews, talking back to me, not nearly having sex out in the open with a twenty-something year old." He shook his head. "How can you love someone who is little more than a boy? When you all were in my house in Palumpolum, that night, I had checked to make sure you were all okay. I opened the door to the room you were in, Snow, and I saw you holding my son. I shrugged it off as something protective, but now… I don't understand."

I had finally managed to get a hold on the emotions and stood up from Snow. "Dad, I can prove to you that just how much we love each other. Give me your hand." He held it out and I took it. I closed my eyes and focused. I dug through my memory. I projected the night of the fireworks to my father. As I relived it, he watched it for the first time. That night was one I could never forget. I showed him from when Snow first told Lightning on. I cut it off just before Snow and I started to get into it too much. I let go of his hand and I saw that my father's cheeks were red. He was breathing heavy and his cheeks had streaks on them.

He wiped his face, "I'm sorry." He broke down and all I knew to do was hug him. "Hope, you know I just want you to be happy, alright. I want nothing but the best for you. I'm so sorry. I wish I could've done more for you." He hugged me back and cried.

I wasn't sure what to do, "Dad, you gave me enough. You always gave me what I wanted."

"No Hope, that's not it." He pulled away and looked at me, "I wasn't around for you to grow up. I wasn't there to be a friend. I was never around to teach you, guide you, be there for you."

I looked to the ground, "I forgive you, but Dad… Why did you never tell me about what was supposed to happen to me?" I looked back up at him and he looked down.

"I wanted to, but your mother said no. She told me that knowing that would ruin your childhood, so I didn't." He shook his head, but smiled, "You loved her so much. When you were a baby, you always wanted your mother. When I held you and walked with you, you would cry and cry until you either saw your mother or heard her voice in the other room." He looked at me. It was the look that he gave me when I would be eating breakfast at the beginning of a new school year or when I would go hang out with friends. He was looking at all of me. He was seeing the infant I was once; all the way through to the person I am now.

…

Bartholomew turned and looked at me, "You had better be good to him." There was no question that I would be good to him. There was no other way to treat him.

"I will!" I assured him.

Hope looked at me and smiled, "So, who am I living with?" That was one problem I had never thought we would have.

I scratched my head, "Well, I would love to live with you Hope, but I'm sure you'd want to live with your dad, right?" I wanted to say that he was living with me in the little apartment that I planned on fucking him in tonight, but that probably wasn't a good idea.

"Well if you want to live with Snow, I'm not going to stop you. In fact, I think it would be better if you did. He is your Guardian after all." Hope and I looked at his father, "I know about the entire thing. Although the Guardian and the Leaver weren't supposed to fall in love, I know the rest of it."

I remembered back to the airship when Fang told Hope about how one of his parents was from Pulse, "So are you the parent that's from Pulse?"

He nodded his head, "Yes I am."

"That's why we never visited your family, because they were down here. But Dad, how did you even get up to Cocoon?" Hope was just as confused as I was.

"I was a l'Cie once and during the War of Transgression; I made it up with the warships. I completed my Focus on Cocoon, and much like your friends Fang and Vanille; I was in crystal stasis for a long time and came out of it. Twenty years ago I came out of crystal stasis to find that where I landed on the ground was in a warehouse in Palumpolum. Your mother worked there. She helped me up and when I looked into her eyes I knew that would marry her." I looked at Hope and smiled. I hoped that one day we'd get married.

We talked for a little while longer before Hope and I went home and Bartholomew went to his own little apartment. "I can't wait until we can actually eat something other than fruit!" Hope said and I laughed. We were sitting at the small table by the window on the other side of the room from the bed, "Really babe, we've had actual meat once since the whole Orphan thing happened. It's getting old."

I got up and stood behind him. I started to rub his shoulders, "Don't you worry about the food." I kissed his cheek and then his chin, "Everything is going to be fine soon enough." I nibbled his earlobe and Hope tilted his head to expose his neck to me. I kissed his neck and he released a sigh. "What you should worry about though," I pulled back the orange jacket and slid it off, "Is where we left off." I untied the handkerchief from around his neck and tossed it to the floor.

Hope got up and turned to kiss me, "You were grabbing my ass, like this." He reached his hands around me and squeezed. I smiled and did my best to contain my urge to deflower him on the spot. I kissed him and his tongue slid into my mouth. I moved my hands under his shirt and pushed it up. His soft, cool skin felt amazing against my finger tips. I carefully ran my hands on his stomach, making sure every inch of him felt my touch. My thumbs landed on his nipples and massaged them gently. Hope's hands tightened on my ass cheeks when I did this and I began to feel myself getting hard.

"Please don't stop! I'm ready this time Snow. I want you!" He kissed my along my jaw and down my neck. I pulled his shirt up over his head and met his lips with mine. Hope pulled my bandana off and began to tug my trench coat down.

I smiled and kissed his neck, "Keep going baby. You're gonna have to get me out of these clothes yourself if you want me to fuck you."

He pulled away and looked at me with a grin, "No problem!" He put a hand on the obvious bulge in my pants, "I can't wait to see you naked again."

"Fuck it! I'm taking my clothes off. I can't take it anymore! I want you so bad Hope, I've waited too long for you." I pulled my shirt off and dropped my pants, instantly Hope was touching my body and kissing me all over.

His lips pressed against my stomach and kept going down.

…

After Snow took his clothes off, something inside my head exploded with lust. His body was incredible. A golden tan with some blonde hair on his chest, there wasn't a lot of it but just enough. From his navel, there was a small trail of hair that led to the thing I knew I'd be spending a lot of time with. I kissed down his warm, strong body and reached the massive length that at full attention. I grabbed it lightly and licked up his long shaft, "Hope!" He gasped. I pumped it a few times before putting it in my mouth. I went down as far as I could, but only got about half of him in. I came back up and went down once more. Snow sighed in pleasure and gently grabbed a handful of my hair and began to guide my head.

The taste of him was intoxicating; I only wanted more of him. Hearing how much pleasure Snow was getting from me made me only want to keep going. I was finally able to go all the way down on him and he moaned out loud. His hold on my hair loosened, "Hope, do you want it?" He asked me lovingly.

I pulled him out of my mouth and took a breath. I stood up and looked into his eyes, "Please Snow. I want to go all the way with you. I want you now and forever." I kissed him.

"Forever and ever babe." He kissed me back and he slid his hands down my body and began to undo my pants. When he got them undone, I pushed them down along with my underwear. Snow looked down and then back up, "You are the most beautiful thing I have ever laid eyes on." He kissed me and pulled my naked body to his. He lifted me up and walked us over to the bed. He laid me down on my back and kissed down my body. I ran my fingers through his hair and couldn't help but breathe heavy. I could feel him take me in his hand. He stroked it a few times and he began to kiss my thighs. His lips began to move closer inward and he lifted up my legs. I was alarmed, but quickly soothed when I felt something hot and wet against my hole.

I threw my head back and grabbed the mattress as best I could. He was licking my entrance and I couldn't help but call his name out in lust and pleasure. I had never felt anything like it before. He rested my legs on his shoulders while he raised himself up a bit higher. "Damn it Snow, keep going!" I begged of him, everything he did felt so good.

He kissed my hip, "I gotta get you ready baby." I knew exactly what he was talking about. There was no way Snow get himself inside of me without some help. He probed around with a finger and began to push in. There was a bit of a burn and I winced. He must've seen it because he kissed my hip again and with his free hand he took mine. It soon felt good and when that happened he added a second. As if out of instinct, I began to move my hips toward his fingers. "You like that?" Snow coolly asked me and I sighed in complete satisfaction. I wanted more of him and I could feel he wanted it too.

"Please! I want you now!" I couldn't stand it any longer, I needed him.

He pulled his fingers from me and stood up, "I've waited too long to have you Hope." He came down to kiss me. My legs still on his shoulders, I felt his hard length brushing up against my ass. He came back up and spit in his hand. He rubbed it all over his cock and put the head against my hole. He began to push in and at first; I wanted to scream it hurt so bad. He stopped and gently put a hand on my chest, "You alright? I can stop if you want me to. I don't want to hurt you."

I shook my head, "No babe, keep going." He kept pushing inside of me and it still hurt. It felt like his dick never ended. When he was finally in all the way he leaned down and kissed me. He began to move his hips and all the pain I felt disappeared. I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him back, "It feels so good Snow!" He pulled out some and pushed back in and I screamed out in ecstasy. He picked up speed and I pulled him close to me and moaned. If I ever knew sex felt this amazing, I would've done this the night I first kissed Snow. He fucked me faster and harder and it only made me scream out for him more.

I could feel myself getting close to the edge and I think Snow knew it too, because he slowed down. He pulled himself almost all the way out and pushed back in. Every time he pushed his cock inside me, he hit something that made me cry out for him. He smiled and brushed the hair from my face, "You like that baby?" He smacked my ass and it made the feeling so much more intense.

I nodded my head and dug my nails into his back. It felt so damn good.

…

Hope was so tight and it took all I had not to finish. It had been months since I had any action and I wasn't about to waste my opportunity to give Hope the best experience. His nails dug into my back, but it only fueled my desire to fuck him as hard as I could. I picked up speed and pounded him as hard as I could. He called out my name and I pulled all the way out and slammed back into him. He scratched down my back and screamed in pleasure, "Don't stop!" He commanded and I didn't intend to. Every aspect of his body was amazing. He didn't lay there and make me do all the work. He dropped his legs and wrapped them around my middle. He grinded his hips against me and I grunted in lust. "Baby, lay down on your back." Hope whispered in my ear. I did my best to just flip us around and when I was on my back, successfully, Hope began grinding his hips and riding me. I put my hands on his waist while he continued to move. He leaned down and kissed me and I squeezed his ass.

He felt so good; his ass was hot and tight, while the rest of him was cool and smooth. He moved at a perfect rhythm that made it hard to keep going, but I had to let him finish first. "Hope, fuck!" I could feel him getting closer and closer, "Ride that cock!" I slipped a hand around his hard dick and started to jack him. He bit his lip and continued to ride me.

His breathing got heavier and I kept stroking him. He screamed out, "Snow!" Hope's muscles tightened around me and I couldn't hold on any longer, we were both moaning and calling each others' names out as we finished. Hope shot his seed all over my chest and collapsed on top of me. He was sweaty and panting, as was I. I pulled out of him and threw a blanket over us.

"That was… amazing!" Hope said with joy. He kissed the spot his lips already touched and I wrapped my arms around him.

I held him tight, I never wanted to let him go. I wished the two of us could just stay in bed, fuck and eat and never leave each other. "I love you Hope."

"I love you too, forever and ever." He looked up at me, "Snow, you are my everything. I forgot who I was without you. You make me feel special, important, loved." I brushed the beautiful silver hair from his seemingly more exquisite face. Looking at him now, I felt more connected to him. I saw more beauty in every detail of his body, his personality.

I smiled and ran a hand up and a down his back, "You are special and important. You are the most special and important thing in this world." I kissed him on the head, "Let's go get cleaned up." We got up and I carried Hope to the small bathroom we had been sharing. The building team had gotten the plumbing back up and running so everyone could shower. I turned the water on and made it just the right temperature for him. He loved his showers hot enough to burn and to create enough steam that water dripped down the walls.

"Get in with me Snow!" Usually Hope liked to shower by himself as his way of relaxing and draining the emotions of the day from his head. I listened to him and stepped into the shower with him. I couldn't help but become lost in the way the water ran down his body. It was magnificent. I was ready to have sex again, but I knew that he wouldn't want to. He looked up at me and I knew what he wanted. It was the same look he'd give me when things were falling apart, or the best that they could be. He wanted love, affection, the healing touch. I ran my fingers through his wet hair and pushed it all back. He rested his head against my chest, "Snow, do you think I made the right decision?"

I stroked through his hair and rubbed his back, "About what? If you're looking for support, I will stand by you. You know that." I looked down to him confused, "Oh you mean living with me instead of your Dad. Hope, sweetheart, it's not too late to move in with him."

He put his head up and met my eyes, "Snow, I don't want to leave you though, but I know my Dad wanted me to live with him."

I furrowed my brow, "Didn't he say you should live with me?"

"You don't know my Dad." He giggled, "He said that because he knows the circumstances, but he really wants me to live with him so he could 'repair' our relationship. I just don't know what I should do." He hugged me, "I need help."

I kissed the top of his head, "You do what _you_ think you should do. Don't mind me or your father. You stay where ever you want, it's your decision." I would want him to live with me, but he does need his father in his life more than he needs a boyfriend.

"Snow, you are both equally as important. You don't have to feel like that." He stepped moved away from me into the stream of water, "I'm beyond the whole being taught by parents thing. I helped save the world with no more knowledge than the average person. I need you. I need my Dad too, but Snow, I need you now."

I smiled, "I love you." It was all I could say. Anytime I couldn't think of anything to say, that's what came out. I grabbed the soap, luckily salvaged by the military and families of Cocoon, and began to wash myself. I lathered up, "You wanna get my back?" I could get used to the shower-sharing thing, Getting my back was always a bitch, but now I had Hope.

He took the soap and began washing. He started up by my shoulders and he started to go down and I winced, I forgot that he scratched down my back, "Wow babe, I got you good!" I turned to look at him and smiled, "Do you want me to heal it?"

I shook my head, "Nah, I wanna remember our first time." He blushed and continued to wash my back. I loved his red cheeks, mostly because I was the only one to be able to do that to him, but also because it was a part of him that I found to be wonderful and kind. When I would see his blush, it was the pureness of his heart showing through.

He tapped my shoulder, "Hey, I'm done. You should get mine now." I washed the soap off. He smiled when I faced him. He turned around and I looked down to see the ass that was now officially mine. I noticed another reminder of the event that took place earlier; my hand print on his left cheek. I grabbed his ass, "I just wanted you to wash my back, not the full package." We laughed and I kissed his shoulder. I washed his back as desired and he rinsed off.

We got out of the shower and got put some pajamas on, also salvaged by the military and people of Cocoon. Hope wore this pair of sexy, blue silk boxers and I just slipped on some loose pants. "You ready for bed babe? Or do you wanna stay up and find something to do?" I wasn't exactly exhausted, but I could've went to bed for the night.

"I kinda wanna go to bed." Hope sat down on the bed, and then there was the knock on the door. "Who could possibly be here? Does anyone even know we live here?" He got up and opened the door. It was Light and Serah.

"Hey! Is something wrong?" He asked.

Serah shook her head, "No, we just wanted to get your 'O.K.' on building plans for a new city."

"Yeah come in." Hope waved them in. We all sat down around the small table in the middle of the room.

Lightning told us about how it was going to be similar to Nautilus, but needed a new name. The plans included a plaza to recreate the Tale of Ragnarok, a chocobo zoo, hotels and shopping areas. The only problem was materials. "How are we going to build with no metal, wood or tools? I'm all for this, but we can't build something with nothing."

"That's kind of why we came. The only places we know of are the Mah'habara Subterra and small areas around Taejin's Tower. We need people to lead the team into the excavation spots." Lightning explained.

Hope looked confused, "Can't we just give them a map and a list of survival skills?" It was a laughable question, but I was thinking the same thing. "We had to find our way by ourselves in the first place. We can't protect these people from Pulse because we have to live here now. If they don't learn to do it themselves then none of us will survive." Serah and I looked at each other and understood what he was saying.

"Hope, we are the only ones, besides Sazh, that know our way here. We have to help these people." Lightning was becoming impatient with Hope since he wasn't going to lay down to take it.

Hope got up and walked over to the small counter by the sink. He opened a drawer and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. He opened it up and laid it out on the table. We all looked at it and then at each other. The contents of this paper were not only amazing, but in the wrong hands could mean the destruction of human life on Pulse.

**Author's Note 2: **Alright, we have yet to reach the end and I'm thinking it might take a little longer than one more chapter to close. Please leave me some reviews letting me know what you think of what's going on. Like always, thank you guys a million times over for reading!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10

We weren't l'Cie anymore, it wasn't like we could just lead a group of people through Pulse and get there just fine. I decided to pull out some plans that my father made his money off of. It was a layout for a 'Crystal Radiation Harvester', what it would do is take all of the energy that is released from the crystal all around the world. It could either be used to create solid matter or be used for communication devices, transits and certain forms of transportation that rely on waves of energy and light. Now that Cocoon was an immense crystal formation in the sky, the power that is emitted from it could be used to build cities. This technology is advanced and dangerous. The scariest part of it was that it worked.

"You can't be serious. This is a breakthrough! Who else knows about this?" Lightning sounded excited.

I took the paper and folded it back up, "Just us, my Dad and Maqui. Since Maqui is good with machines and stuff like that, I told my Dad to talk to him about help building it." I put it back in the drawer, "It will take a few weeks to build and make sure all the parts work, but after that production should start happening in no time."

I felt relief from more than one person, "I'm glad you guys feel that way."

Serah cocked her head to the side and Snow told her, "Empath, he feels what you feel. Convenient and annoying at the same time." He, Light and Serah laughed and I shot daggers at him. When I looked at him, I could tell he felt bad, "Oh Hope, come on. I know you know I'm just playing. Remember, I can feel you too." He grabbed me by the hips and sat me down on his lap.

"So, how have you guys been? Since Cocoon I mean." Serah asked us.

I let Snow answer, "We've been good, happy. It's great knowing we can wake up without having to keep moving to somewhere new." He rested his head on my shoulder, "How have you guys been?"

"I've been good; I'm just trying to help get some sort of schooling set up. The kids need education now more than ever. I was hoping that once we can find a space, you, Light and Mr. Katzroy could come and teach the kids a little about Pulse. Hope, if we haven't gotten upper-level education set up, then I would love for you to come too!" Serah was very kind and sincere. And upper-level education? On Cocoon that was college.

I looked at her confused, "Upper-level? You mean I'm supposed to be going to college?"

Light and Serah nodded their heads, "Yep, judging on your records in school, you were excelling far beyond others. Your grades were better than those ready to graduate and your class list was equal to theirs."

I thought I was just smart, not that smart. There was a pounding of arousal that surged through my whole body. It was Snow, I guess intelligence was something that turned him on, "Alright, but what would I even be taking classes for? I don't know what I want to do with my life."

"Well, your magic is still just as powerful right?" Lightning asked and come to think of it, my magic was stronger than ever. Now that I didn't have my brand, I had to purify the spells and cast them from my center.

I nodded my head, "Yeah, why?"

"There are classes you can take for magic. That is if anyone was able to save records and books." Serah explained.

Lightning looked outside to only see the light of the main-square fire that burned every night, "Alright. I think it's time we get going. It's late and I'm sure you guys want to go to bed."'

"Yes!" I blurted out without even meaning to, inside everyone else's head they were all wanting to go to bed. "Umm, sorry, I didn't mean to…" I felt so embarrassed; I hated it when that would happen. Yesterday, Snow and I were in the main square and Yuj walked by us and said 'hi', but he didn't just want to say hello to Snow. I jumped on top of his lap and kissed him and started pulling his hair. Snow liked it, but I didn't. I felt sort of violated that I was acting on how Yuj felt. This morning even, I was down at the basin practicing my magic and I started crying. I was bawling because my knee hurt. I turned around and there was a toddler that scraped his knee. "It just happens sometimes." I did my best to hide my face from everyone.

Snow squeezed me and kissed my neck, "Hey, its okay. Light understands, I understand and I'm sure Serah understands."

"Yes! I'm not going to judge you." Serah assured me. Even though I did pretty much steal her fiancée, I hoped that we could become friends. I'm just glad she doesn't treat me like crap. The two sisters got up and headed toward the door. I got up and opened it for them. "Hey Hope, tomorrow can you maybe teach me some magic? Light told me that you were the most powerful so I'd thought I'd ask."

I nodded my head, "You bet! Do you want to meet down by the basin after lunch?"

She nodded her head, "See you then!" Serah smiled and headed out the door. Lightning followed and I shut the door. I walked over to Snow, still sitting at the table, and sat on his lap. I hugged him around the neck and nestled my head in the crook of his neck.

"What's up babe?" Snow was worried.

I sighed, "I don't know, I just hope that you don't have to go down into the mines. Lightning wanted you to go. Alone. She wanted you to lead the team so she didn't have to. I wasn't going to say anything about my Dad's plan, but I wasn't about to let you get hurt." I could feel myself about to cry.

Snow began shush me, "I'm not going anywhere. There's no need for tears." He inched back, "Look at me." I looked up at him, my eyes burning trying to hold back the waterworks. "Smile. We're here together, happy and we're okay." He pulled me into the big, warm arms that always made the pain go away. He just held me and I couldn't help but cry. All I could think about was if Snow got hurt. I really didn't know what I would do. On top of that, I didn't want to be an empath anymore; I didn't want to be a Leaver. I was just done with all these powers and prophecies. The tears burned down my cheeks and Snow just held me tighter, "I know kiddo. It's hard. The power you have is a lot to deal with and especially for what you've already been through. You aren't alone, you have me every step of the way. Light, Sazh, your Dad and even Serah are here for you. So are Fang and Vanille." What I would give to have them back.

I wiped my eyes, "I'm sorry I cry a lot. I don't mean to." I felt my cheeks get red and Snow kissed them with soft, strong lips. They were gentle and warm. "Thank you, for always being here for me. Even when I hated you, you were still by my side."

…

It was funny to think back to when we weren't together. I was so stubborn and cocky all the time. Trying to be everyone's hero when no one needed saving. I can admit that I was an asshole. I was lucky to have Hope. He saved me and made me a better person. The only hero I needed to be was his because he's been mine. I remember the moment I fell in love with him. I wanted to kiss him so bad. Our lips were so close and I wanted to close that final distance, but Hope asked me about Serah. I didn't care about her anymore. I just wanted him. And since then, he's all I wanted.

I picked Hope up and carried him over to the bed. I climbed over him and he crawled up to my chest and laid there like he did every night. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled the blanket up. "You know, it seems like every time I wake up with you in my arms, I learn about the world again. You teach me everyday what it's like to love with everything that I am and then some. There is no such thing as life without you because my life is all about you. Before you, my life was about getting to you. Now that we are together, my life is all about us, and if there ever comes a time where we are apart, it will be all about getting you back." I held on to him and looked up to the ceiling. Life was perfect, even though we didn't have much, we had each other. At the end of the day, that's all that matters. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with him.

Then I remembered what was around my neck. I grabbed hold of the engagement necklace I got for Serah and me. Hope swatted my hand, "Don't get rid of it, okay? Keep that necklace, it's a reminder of the love you two once had. I don't want you to forget her because you're with me now. I mean just as long as you don't run off." He looked up to me and I couldn't help but smile. He was always so supportive of my past. When we were on Pulse before, I had told him about when I was in school, I would get picked on. I wasn't good-looking then. I was the weird kid with no parents. "I don't want you to forget."

I rustled his hair and kissed his head, "Alright then, I won't. Goodnight baby. I love you." We fell asleep together for what felt like the first time again. I noticed all the little things he did that I had become accustom to; the way he would wrap a leg around mine and sometimes laugh in his sleep. I always stayed awake until he was asleep. I wanted to make sure that if there was something on his mind, I was awake for him to tell me about it.

I woke up and shifted a little bit. The beautiful boy in my arms opened his eyes a little, "I was comfy!" He complained and I rubbed his back. He tried to pull me back to him, but quit since he was still tired.

"Go back to sleep. I gotta get ready for work." Today was the first day of the repair work needed on the village. Like usual, I wanted to stay in bed with Hope, maybe have sex again, but I knew I had to go.

I started to get out of bed when he sat up, "That's today?! We were supposed to go see Sazh and Dahj today." I had completely forgotten about that. We made plans with Sazh to go see our chocobos.

"Shit babe! I'm sorry. Tell you what; we can go as soon as I get home alright?" I felt bad, because I knew Dahj really wanted to see the giant birds. I took off my pajama pants and put on some underwear. I pulled on some pants and a shirt.

Hope got out of bed and shuddered and I knew exactly what that was from, "Snow, what did you do to me yesterday?!" He was sore and again, I felt bad. He slowly walked over to the counter and grabbed a piece of fruit. His hair was all a mess and he had some spit dried up on the corner of his mouth. I walked into the bathroom and made sure I didn't need to shave, "Don't do it. I like your scruff." He called to me in a barky voice and I laughed.

"Whatever makes you happy." I picked up the children's' toothbrush that was mine and began the morning rituals. The only ones left when the military came around were the toothbrushes for children. I finished up in the bathroom and headed out to put my boots on. I strapped on my gloves and headed over to say goodbye to Hope. I took the fruit from his hand and set it down. I lifted him up on the counter; I rested my hands on his thighs. I kissed him gently on the lips and he threw his arms around my neck. I could feel that he wanted me to fuck him right there on the spot, but we both knew better, "Maybe before we leave we could have a little fun?" I asked him calmly.

His eyes lit up, "Please!" He smiled with a devious look in his eye and I got excited.

"Alright, I gotta go before you make me late!" I kissed him again and headed toward the door. As I was about to leave Hope tugged on my shirt, he was holding my bandana. I put it on, "What would I do without you?" I kissed him on the cheek, "See you soon babe, love you!"

Hope and I almost always exchanged the question "Promise?"

"Forever and ever." We would reply back. And with that, I headed to work.

…

I watched him walk down the stairs and into the main square where he was greeted by some friends. He looked back up to me and flashed the smile that only I got to see. It was going to be weird not spending the day with him, but I saw it as a good thing. I needed to have some sort of life outside of our relationship, but how do I do that? Friends. The people I went to school with before just looked at me funny now. I greeted them and told them to come to me if they needed help with Pulse-things. They just looked at me like I had three heads or something. Those people were a no-go. Lightning was for sure busy with organizing building. I thought of Lebreau, but I knew she would be busy trying to set up some sort of hospitality for people. Gadot would be working, and I certainly was not about to hang out with Yuj. I could see what Maqui was up to.

I threw on some clothes and did what I needed in the bathroom. I threw some shoes and headed out into the square. I looked up to the sky and remembered the day Snow and I made those fireworks. I kept walking to the other side where I saw my father talking to some people. He didn't notice me, but I could tell he was talking business. I could usually find Maqui over by the elevator to Taejin's Tower. He was a tinker and he liked the Pulse technology since it gave him a challenge.

I walked up the hill and saw some Cei'th in the distance. They were small and I could take them out if need be. I could feel someone's presence in the distance, so I knew it had to be him. I walked in the sand until I came to a small open area where the elevator and Maqui were. "Hey!" I called out to him. He didn't hear me, he had his headphones on. As I got closer, I could tell that not only was he tinkering away, he was listening to music.

I tapped him on the shoulder and he jumped. He quickly drew a gun and pointed it at my face, "Oh, Hope it's just you." He said shyly, "Sorry, I've just gotten into the habit of the gun thing since the Purge." He felt nervous and his face began to get red. He felt embarrassed.

"Don't worry about it! So, whatcha up to?" I looked at the side of it to see that he had taken a panel off of it to examine the inside.

He scribbled something down in the notebook that he had. There were drawings of familiar objects: crystals. "These machines here on Pulse, many of them run on crystal energy. How they were able to extract the power from it is beyond me."

I immediately thought of my father's drawings and plans for the harvester, "Yeah, my dad told me about his plans for the harvester. Do you think that it's possible to build it?" I felt a jump of excitement from the Maqui, as if no one ever asked him about stuff like this.

"With the right materials sure, but we somehow have to get a hold of a few transformational catalysts. I mean, I have a few left. We can't use all of them though. Some of them just work for reconstruction, while others are for power and energy." He explained and I ran through a list of catalysts in my head that I knew the six of us used on our journey.

"So you need things like the cobaltite and trapezohedrons, right?"

He nodded his head as he sketched something out on another page. "There are a few more things that we'll need. We need materials that can withstand strain and pressure."

I thought of the giant tortoises, "There are oretortoises in the Yaschaas Masiif. Adamantoise, Long Gui. We could harvest the material on their shells. Trapezohedrons grow directly from them so they have to be able to withstand pressure to even make compounds that strong." Maqui wrote all of this down, "They are strong enemies, but I know that they can be constrained, most of them have shackles attached to them. So obviously humans have used them before."

I could feel his intrigue. He wanted to know more, "Wouldn't it just be easier to take them down though?"

"Sure it would be easier, but that would destroy the population and we wouldn't be able to harvest anymore from them. If we take only what we need from a large group of them, there would be no need to hurt them." That too, was written down. After that, he walked around to the door to see if it would open. He looked around for something to open it with. He finally gave up and went back to the side and fixed the panel he took off. "Do you want to go to the Tower?"

He looked at me confused, "Go where?"

"Taejin's Tower, it's where this thing came from. It was meant to be part of the structure itself, but when it split, I guess it detached." His eyes lit up, "The door doesn't have a switch, I'm pretty sure it opens by magic."

I walked up to it and the door opened, as if by magic. We stepped in and I pushed the lever.

**Author's Note: **Hey guys, sorry it took me so long to write this. I've been studying for exams, the whole college thing. I'm also trying to plan out another story for when I finish this one. We are winding down to the end though, and I'm excited to write it. As always, thank you guys for reading this story!

p.s. There are still a few things that need to be resolved with this part of the story: Fang and Vanille, the harvester and most importantly, Snow's l'Cie brand.


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